Last May, Caritas Czech Republic began a project to improve the quality and access of care for children under five and mothers in the Western province of Zambia. The province is the least developed area in the country and the living conditions of its inhabitants are extremely harsh.

Most inhabitants of the Zambian Western province make a living by farming. Their production covers only their own needs. The people also have limited access to social services, namely education and health care. The deep Kalahari sands covering most of the area complicate transport and increase the costs of transportation of goods and provision of services.

The Zambian health sector deals with one of the highest mortality rates of mothers, new-borns and children under five in the world. Indeed, the statistics of the Western province are significantly below the national average. For this reason, Caritas Czech Republic will support the local Lewanika General Hospital in the refurbishment of its maternity hospital and training of its workers in the field of urgent obstetrics, prenatal and neonatal care including hygiene and prevention of transmission of infections. Czech medical doctors will participate in the training to transfer their practical experience to Zambian colleagues.

The activities of Caritas Czech Republic do not only focus on work within hospitals. In trying to determine the causes of high maternal and new-born mortality rates, Caritas Czech Republic wants to contribute to the improvement of the whole reference system. Namely, Caritas will look at the way in which workers in lower health care institutions act upon complicated cases which are outside their capacity and how they transfer those cases to higher level hospitals and health care institutions.

As part of the project, Caritas Czech Republic wants to improve teaching at a school for midwives called Lewanika Midwifery School. The students will be educated in a new subject field called Registered Midwifery. The school is the only one of its kind in the province and is therefore a key source for qualified midwives and for all healthcare centres in the province.

To ensure the smooth running of all activities and to improve communication with local authorities, Caritas Czech Republic founded its own mission seat in Mongu, the capital city of the Western province. This is the fourth foreign mission of Caritas Czech Republic. Now we have our own offices in Haiti, Mongolia and Indonesia, the countries where we operate and plan long-term work.