The Mercy James Centre for Paediatric Surgery and Intensive Care (MJC), also Mercy James Centre, or Mercy James Hospital, is a specialized children's hospital in
Malawi
Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...
.
Location
The institute is located in the
central business district
A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...
of
Blantyre
Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...
, Malawi's second-largest city. MJC is located on the grounds of "Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital", the largest public hospital in Blantyre, to which it is affiliated. It is also within walking distance to the
University of Malawi College of Medicine
The University of Malawi College of Medicine (UMCM), also Malawi College of Medicine in Blantyre, is a constituent college of the University of Malawi, the oldest and largest public university in the country. The college houses the Faculty of M ...
, which uses the 1,000-bed Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital as its teaching hospital.
Overview
This institute was developed by
Raising Malawi
Raising Malawi is a charity non-profit organization that was founded by Madonna and Michael Berg in 2006. It is dedicated to helping with the extreme poverty and hardship endured by Malawi's one million orphans, primarily through health and educa ...
, a
non-government organization
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
, founded by
Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
, in collaboration with the Malawian health ministry, to provide intensive care services for children and increase the number of pediatric surgeries performed at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital. The Mercy James Centre is a modern, fully equipped pediatric surgery and intensive care unit at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in the city of Blantyre, Malawi’s commercial and financial center.
Prior to the opening of MJC, the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital had less than ten intensive care beds. The entire country of 17 million people, of whom 15 percent were aged less than 15 years, had fewer than five pediatric surgeons. The new institute addresses both those problems. It serves as a teaching facility for Malawian pediatric surgeons.
History
Plans to construct this institute were first made public in November 2014.
Construction of the buildings started in 2015 and the hospital was officially opened on 11 July 2017.
See also
*
Education in Malawi
Education in Malawi stresses academic preparation leading to access to secondary school and universities. However, few students go on to high school or university. The dropout rate is also very high particularly among primary school pupils.
Prim ...
*
Eric Borgstein
Eric S. Borgstein is a Dutch pediatric surgeon and professor of surgery at the University of Malawi College of Medicine.
Early life
Borgstein was born in Malawi to two Dutch physicians. He attended medical school and trained as a surgeon in Sco ...
*
Healthcare in Malawi Healthcare in Malawi and its limited resources are inadequate to fully address factors plaguing the population, including infant mortality and the very high burden of diseases, especially HIV/ AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
Background
Malawi has ...
References
External links
Website of Raising MalawiMadonna's song of hope for Malawi's children
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2017 establishments in Malawi
Buildings and structures in Blantyre
Hospitals in Malawi
Hospitals established in 2017