Already February!
It has been an exciting start of the year for us as the Virtual Doctors have introduced their service to four new sites in Siavonga district in Zambia’s southern province. Phallon and Tyrell have been in Siavonga training clinical officers who will then deliver the service at their rural health centres in Matua, Chaanga, Sianyolo and Kariba.
Some of the Siavonga Clinical Officers getting familiar with the VDrs system
Siavonga. on the shores of Lake Kariba, is a popular tourist destination, it’s also a large district stretching inland from the Lake and beyond the holiday resorts are many remote communities that can benefit from the virtual Doctors’ service.
Our people in Zambia
As the sites multiply and our service grows across Zambia, so has the team of people on the ground! In this issue we would like to turn the spotlight on all our collaborators in the field.
Dr Phallon Mwaba has been appointed on a contractual part time basis as our In-Country Lead In Zambia. As well as overseeing Virtual Doctors operations in Zambia he is our link between the Head Office in the UK and the medical hierarchy in Zambia; he will train new Clinical Officers, support existing ones and join forces with Tyrell at the ministry. He is also part of our volunteer team of medical professionals. Dr Mwaba trained as a medical doctor at the University of Zambia’s School of Medicine and then went on to do a master in Global health at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He has experience in clinical work as well as hospital and District level management of primary health care through his work in hospitals as well as through management at District Medical Offices in Slavonga and Kazungula.
Tyrell Junius. an American national who has been living and working in Zambia for the past 3 years, has been very supportive as a general liaison agent on the ground for the Virtual Doctors for about a year now, supporting our Clinical Officers and coordinating our agenda at the Ministry of Health amongst many other tasks.
Stellah Chilembo. is from Lusaka and works as a field assistant in support of Phallon. Stellah is responsible for liaising with the Clinical Officers who use the Virtual Doctors service as well as carrying out patient feedback surveys.
Last but not least: our Zambia office bearers
Dr Boniface Fundafunda, Managing Director at Medical Stores Limited, has over 20 years of work experience ¡n both the public and the private sectors, as well as the UN agencies and provides the Virtual Doctors with guidance. particularly on engagement with the Ministry of Health. I589t
Mr Muyunda Muyinda is Enterprise Director at AirTei Zambia. With his wide-ranging corporate experience, he has been providing precious business advice as well as opening many doors in Zambia to the Virtual Doctors.
Volunteers under the Spotlight
Huge thanks to the people of Lewes Christ Church whose adoption has just come to an end raising a very generous £2160. The Virtual Doctors have now been adopted by The United Church ¡n Dorchester for 2017; many thanks to Joy for making this connection and we look forward to a successful year of fundraising and spreading news of the Virtual Doctors work through these new friends.
If your association is Interested in adopting the Virtual Doctors as their charity please get in touch!
And finally
To make it easier for people to find us on Companies House register, we have renamed our registered name for our incorporated organisational element from Virtual Development UK to the Virtual Doctors Ltd. We will continue to operate the charity as the Virtual Doctors and this name change is for administrative purposes only and does not change the ethos and goals of the organisation and how we undertake our work delivering a complementary telemedicine service