From camp to clinic and back without delay in Malawi
As part of Healix’s humanitarian assistance services, our Malawi Ground Team supported refugees seeking resettlement by ensuring they attended medical appointments and returned to camp before curfew. The journey to the panel hospital was 50 km each way and involved traffic delays, poor roads and police checkpoints. Refugees needed UNHCR-issued movement passes, requiring significant paperwork and coordination. Each trip involved multiple appointments and had to be completed before the strict 18:00 curfew – missing it meant no overnight shelter. Balancing efficiency and cost while avoiding delays was critical.
Approach
After careful planning and development of detailed contingencies, Healix provided key recommendations for how our Ground Team could be most effective. First, the pick-up time of refugees at the camp needed to be at 07h00, allowing for the Ground Team to perform their preparatory move during daylight.
For safety and logistical reasons, we recommended a maximum group size of 12, which meant larger groups would be processed over a two-day timeframe. We also emphasised the importance of establishing a transit area for picking up the refugees and stressed that UNHCR movement passes should be shared with Ground Team ahead of tasks.
We established the latest acceptable departure time of 15h30 from the hospital, giving the team time to feed the refugees on the road during the return journey to the camp.
Outcome
Because we carefully planned around key factors – like passenger numbers, timely access to movement passes, checkpoints, traffic and delays – we kept improving how we managed collection, movement, attendance and departure. This meant our Ground Team and the refugees arrived safely at the camp, and always before curfew. The successful completion of these tasks has helped applicants complete a critical step on the path to resettlement.