Informal caregivers of people with HIV in Malawi
A key project in the Health Informatics research group.
This project involves supporting informal caregivers of HIV/AIDS patients in rural Malawi both in their role and in everyday life by disseminating targeted health advisory messages promoting better healthcare and wellbeing.
In Malawian rural communities, where items and goods are shared as well as knowledge according to the principles of the ‘uMunthu’ philosophy, this study aims to form a nucleus from which information would travel and diffuse geographically by word of mouth (as well as WhatsApp voice messaging), hence impacting communities beyond those explicitly targeted by the research project.
Such messages, created in collaboration with a team of local physicians, include knowledge on first aid, nutrition, small medical emergencies and Covid-19-related advice to help caregivers become empowered to manage minor health crisis, which would go undetected due to the lack of local healthcare system infrastructures.
A community of practice approach is employed in the project to provide mutual support and opportunities for sharing and learning from experience, supporting capacity building.
The project has been funded by GCRF QR - Sustainable partnership awards (Grant no. X/164172).