Our Mission

Our Mission

Lifeline Malawi Association (LM) is an independent Canadian based charity which is headquartered in Surrey, BC, Canada and which operates a Medical Health Centre and small Maternity Hospital in rural Malawi, Africa. 

Located on the shores of Lake Malawi, the Lifeline Malawi Health Centre provides medical care and preventive measures that act to strengthen the health of the more than 100,000 impoverished people living in our community.  Over the past 14 years, with the help of many Canadians and others around the world, LM Health Centre has become a center of excellence when people find compassion, hope, life-saving medicines, a safe place to bring children into our world, and vital health services for all stages of life. Together, our story is one of hope, healing, compassion and community transformation.

 Maternity

Prenatal, maternal, and newborn care is provided at RoseTree Maternity Unit, offering pregnancy related services and obstetric care for women in low-risk pregnancies. Services continue to be accessed by hundreds of women. There are between 65-75 babies delivered each month at the Health Centre. Each pregnant woman attends prenatal program and during various stages of her pregnancy, she is tested for HIV.  If she is positive she starts immediately on anti-retro viral therapy (ART) and will receive medicine during the childbirth, reducing the risk of HIV transmission during delivery. Family planning is also discussed with patients and a variety of options are offered 

Primary Health Care

The LM Health Centre provides primary health care consultations, treatments, medicines, laboratory services to all its patients.  If needed, our ambulance will transport seriously ill patients to the Salima District Hospital, 40 KM away. We operate a day ward for those needing rest, observation, or further treatment during the day.

HIV/AIDS

The LM Health Centre provides counselling, testing and ART treatment for those with the life threatening HIV/AIDS virus. Total number of HIV clients on ART's is over 2,200 people.  Patients continue to be monitored and supported at HIV Clinics throughout the week and follow-up with those who default in their treatment program.

Community Health Education

Health talks are given daily to patients in the waiting room on various health related topics.  Each program at Lifeline Malawi Health Centre educates and promotes preventative measures throughout the clinic on such topics as HIV prevention, safe motherhood, immunizations, nutrition, and public health issues. LM also operates and after-school youth program with sports, community helps initiatives, discussions on life choices and healthy living.

 Under Five Clinics

Newborns from the Maternity and children under 5 in the communities are referred to the Under Five Clinic which provides access to post maternity services, growth monitoring, and immunization. Malnourished children and their care givers are referred to the LM Nutrition Clinic, where they will become part of the supplementary feeding program.

Palliative Care Clinics

Lifeline Malawi Palliative Care Team care for sick and dying patients at our palliative care outpatient clinics and though home care visits for those who are too sick to travel. We give comfort and love to the suffering, providing medicines to relieve the pain, changing dressings and providing relief and treatments for other symptoms.  

About Our Charity

Lifeline Malawi was first established by Dr. Chris Brooks, a Canadian physician living and working in Malawi, as medical outreach at the lake shore community of Ngodzi, where there were no medical facilities, clean water or even sufficient food for the local population. Ngodzi is a rural community of 100,000 people approx. 100 km southeast of the capital city of Lilongwe. Here the health conditions and medical needs of the local people were desperate and Dr. Brooks' compassion for these people initiated the vision for the Lifeline Malawi Health Centre. 

Dr. Brooks initially (1998) worked with a small staff to provide a part-time medical presence in the community. In September 2001, he opened a new eight room medical clinic on land donated by the community. Lifeline became a registered charity in Canada in 2003. Since then, the Ngodzi property has been developed, through donations raised in Canada, the United States, France and the U.K, into a medical facility offering full-time medical and health-related services. Having spent 12 years full time in Malawi with his family, Dr. Brooks now travels between Malawi and Canada 4 times each year, spending a total of 6 months in each place.