NEWS:

10 Oct, 2016


Tapiwa is Honoured with an Msc Degree from the University of Witwatersrand
Ms.Tapiwa Sphiwe Gondwe is a lecturer in Family Health and Well-being in the Faculty of Food and Human Sciences (Department of Human Ecology) and a holder of a Master of Public Health degree (MPH), obtained from University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa under the auspices of CABMACC.
In 2013, Tapiwa was, through the staff capacity building, awarded a CABMACC scholarship in line with her concept that focused on Family Health and climate change as being relevant and up-to-date with the current issues affecting most families. The two year scholarship provided for Tapiwa’s tuition fees, stipend and a return air-ticket once a year.

Ms Tapiwa Gondwe graduated in 2015 under the public health masters’ program specialising in Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC). For her research, Tapiwa studied “Women’s Knowledge, Perception and Practice of Cholera Prevention Messages” in Phalombe District.
Tapiwa accredits her success as a lecture to the CABMACC scholarship saying that the window helped move her from being an associate lecturer to a lecturer position which she says is a very important step in the academia. “Through the CABMACC scholarship I am now a Social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) specialist which is a very important area in as far as addressing health challenges affecting families in Malawi (Africa) is concerned. The sexual reproductive health issues, HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, diseases of life style (High blood pressure, diabetes), and other diseases like Cholera as well as other challenges like Climate Change and national cross cutting issues like gender issues require more of a behavioural approach intervention in addition to the biomedical and scientific dimensions.
Justifying her research, Tapiwa said that cholera prevention messages, such as using and drinking safe water or washing hands often with soap, are essential to the eradication of cholera. She also emphasised that prevention is the key to the reduction or elimination of cholera with its rapid onset and spread. She further blamed limited social science research on how messages influence perceptions and practices related to cholera-preventing behaviours for the continuous outbreaks of cholera in the southern parts of Malawi.
“The perceptions and practices of women are critically important; as they are mostly responsible for collecting and treating water for household use, cooking food, taking care of their family members and many other household chores around which cholera prevention messages are based. If their reception of past messages is understood, future messages and interventions can be better tailored to promote effective and sustainable cholera prevention interventions’. Said Tapiwa.
From her study, Tapiwa found that Cholera prevention messages transmitted through radio and television were found to be less effective sources of messages in the study areas because most families do not have radios or televisions. However, extension workers and friends play the most part in transmitting these messages. The study found a huge gap between knowledge and practice and also observed barriers as poverty, marital status, access to safe water, illiteracy, inconsistency of the interventions, cultural beliefs and negligence. The results of her study also showed that Social and Behaviour Change Communication is vital in addressing certain behavioural challenges in family Health.
Tapiwa hopes that her study which is exploring the knowledge, perception and practice of these messages among women will be important for future interventions regarding cholera prevention.


Written By Christie Kang’ombe