Monday 11 March 2013

Epilepsy in Malawi

With the increasing number of burns victims that Landirani Trust sees in Malawi there is also an increasing need for education.

In Malawi, like many other developing countries, Epilepsy is often thought of as evil spirits possessing the body.  During the seizures that individuals experience, the cultural belief is that their mind and body are being controlled.  As a result community members place the seizing individual's feet and sometimes hands into a burning fire to try to assist with the release of these evil spirits. Subsequently those suffering from epilepsy also then have to deal with the painful and sometimes untreated burns.

Landirani Trust would like to decrease the number of burns they are seeing and are trying to provide education to their communities about what is Epilepsy and how to treat and protect someone who is experiencing a seizure.

On top of having Epilepsy, unlike us in developed countries such as Australia and the UK, Malawians do not have regular or easy access to medication to assist with the management of Epilepsy and the associated seizures.

It would be great to see all clinics within the areas Landirani services have better access to medication however this often requires money.  For those clinics who have medication some individuals are unable to make the distance to the clinic and so money donated to Landirani would assist in the purchasing of bicycle ambulances able to be used by communities.  For more information on where your money could assist please go to www.landirani.org to see more of our ongoing projects.