Feature

Madalo Makunganya Wella is a state registered nurse midwife at Zomba Central Hospital, which is a referral hospital for 6 districts in the eastern region of Malawi. But to be where she is, her journey hasn’t been easy as most people would imagine. Her midwifery career has gone through a significant number of tests and challenges that had it not been for the love she has for the profession; she would have simply walked away.

Makunganya’s midwifery career journey dates back to 2004 when she begun working as a nurse at the Hospital after attaining a certificate in nursing. The certificate then used to be given after 2 years of training due to shortage of nursing professionals. A year later (2005) she went back to school to pursue a certificate in midwifery for a year.

 Fast forward to 2011, a beacon of hope to becoming a registered nurse/midwife rose for Makunganya when Malawi College of Health Sciences (MCHS) (Blantyre Campus) released a training opportunity advert calling for people to apply for a Diploma in Nursing and Midwifery Sciences, and just like any other career-oriented nurse, Makunganya applied and underwent all the recruitment processes as stipulated by MCHS. Among other requirements the college wanted students to have at least Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) with 4 credits including in Maths, Physical Science and Biology and at least two years of experience as a nurse. Whether Madalo met the requirements or not is something we are yet to find out but she was selected to start her training at the school in March 2012.

But it wasn’t long before her dream seemingly hit a snag. Barely two weeks into her training, she was one day called into the Registrar’s office.  In the office, Madalo shrunk with shock when she was told that she was erroneously given a place at the college.

“You know what, you don’t qualify for this, we don’t know how we picked you,” she narrates the words of the registrar on that dark day.

She was asked to withdraw as she did not meet the minimum entry requirements.

”The vacancy stipulated that someone should be a nurse with two years working experience and I have eight years’ experience. The vacancy said one should have four credits, I have them….,” she tried to protest but her arguments fell on a deaf ear.

“Of course, your certificate is good. You have five credits but, in the advert, we said six credits,” answered the registrar.

Leaving all her belongings in the hostel, she went back home to look for the newspaper in which the college had published its advert.

She narrates further: “I photocopied the vacancy from the newspaper and called the registrar and he said yes, I have seen the vacancy, it said four credits but it was just a mistake. The decision remains the same.”

Thus the college stood its ground on its earlier decision, advising Makunganya to go back and resit for MSCE to get the six points the college was demanding, with a promise of reserving her place at the college. That did not go well with her.

It seemed to her that things were falling apart. What’s the next step that she should take now? She wondered.

With advice from a friend, Makunganya decided to contact National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives (NONM) to have her case heard and also managed to convince other 5 others who had a similar case with the college though the 3 withdrew for fear of losing their reserved place at the college.

“By that time, I was a NONM member and I paid a student fee of K500 which was less than a dollar, even now,” she says.

Upon contacting NONM through Benson Phiri, the former executive director of NONM she was advised to compile her case and attach all her particulars (copies of certificates and school offer letter). Upon sending, NONM lawyer called Madalo and told her to go back to school and get a letter of expulsion.

The NONM lawyer called the officials at school on the same, Makunganya and friends went back to meet the college officials to ask them to rescind their earlier decision, a request which the college did not honour.  It was at this time that Madalo and her team through NONM lawyer obtained an injunction against their expulsion and immediately after the serving of the injunction the college opted for an out of court settlement although it had already found other students to replace Madalo and friends.

“And I tell you we won the case through NONM. So for me, without NONM I wouldn’t have been where I am because I graduated in 2015. In 2017 I used the diploma to apply for bachelor of science in midwifery at Kamuzu College of Nursing and Midwifery of Malawi.

“I see it as an inspiration. NONM lifted me up from where I was. I couldn’t make it without NONM and I had nowhere to go. I tell you when I was expelled from school, I couldn’t eat. I didn’t have appetite. But the moment I called the NONM lawyer, I ate something and I was relieved,” explains Madalo.

As a registered nurse/midwife, Makunganya is now able to make critical decisions that she wouldn’t make while serving as a nurse/midwife technician.