The membership of CHAM is open to any Christian-related health facility owned by a church that is a legal entity that either that has health facilities which are members of CHAM and are affiliated to the Episcopal Conference of Malawi or the Malawi Council of Churches.
Interested facilities are required to make an application to the Executive Director of CHAM by the church proprietor with support recommendation from the relevant mother body and the application has to be accompanied with an application fee as specified by the CHAM Board of Directors. For this purpose CHAM Secretariat design application forms to be completed by applicants. CHAM does not entertain an application that does not have the support of a church proprietor and a mother body. Membership is then approved by the General Assembly following a recommendation made by the Board of Directors.
To become and remain a member of CHAM health facilities are supposed to be:
1.Not for profit;
2) Eligible according to the criteria set in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Government and CHAM;
3) Registered by the Medical Council of Malawi, and approved by the Ministry responsible for Health.
Those health facilities that would otherwise have qualified to be members but do not qualify according to the criteria set in the MoU between the Government of Malawi and CHAM, may apply to be associate members but does not enjoy any benefit provided in the said MOU. Associate membership fees are communicated to members by the Secretariat as approved by the General Assembly from time to time.
A health facility may cease to be a member of CHAM by resignation or a decision is taken at the CHAM General Assembly by not less than two thirds of voting delegates attending the meeting. The General Assembly may take such a decision based on the recommendation of the Board of Directors if a member health facility is considered to have consistently failed to pay its CHAM membership fees or to be failing to meet other conditions of CHAM membership or to be in persistent breach of this constitution
Benefits
Privileges and benefits of CHAM membership shall include:
- Joint negotiation with relevant stakeholders on behalf of members;
- Joint mobilization of resources for members;
- Receiving government subventions as agreed between CHAM and the Government. This includes government funding for personal emoluments based on the staff establishment agreed between CHAM and the Government;
- Receiving donations and supplies provided to CHAM;
- Tax exemptions as agreed by the Government;
- Projects funded through CHAM;
- Capacity building activities provided through CHAM;