Save the Children International (SCI) has donated assorted items to M’mbelwa District Council to complement the district’s efforts in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
The items donated include 35 push bicycles, handwashing materials like hand sanitisers, chlorine, water buckets, and personal protective equipment like face masks.
The Director of Operations, Frank Mwanfulirwa, stated, ‘[W]e wanted to complement in the fight against Covid-19 specifically in areas of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), education and child protection including community mobilisation’.
He commended their partner, the World Bicycle Relief, (WBR) for the donation of 100 bicycles which will be distributed to Ntcheu, Phalombe, and Mzimba. He said that the bicycles will solve mobility problems that community health workers like the Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) and child protection workers face during their course of work.
The Mzimba District Director for Health and Social Services (DHSS), Lumbani Munthali, received the items and thanked the organisation for the kind gesture which came on time to assist them to fight against the virus.
Munthali said, ‘A special mention should go to [SCI] for the unwavering support rendered to Mzimba hospital as the fight against Covid-19 rages on’. He stated that apart from the MK65 million with which the government supported M’mbelwa District Council to fight Covid-19, partners have also supported the district with capacity building for health workers and volunteers, and various medical equipment. ’I would like to applaud other partners as well for the support rendered to us as we continue working tirelessly to stop the spread of [the] Covid-19 pandemic’, he added.
Munthali noted that the Mzimba South District hospital has not yet received a single case of Covid-19 since 02 April, 2020, when the country reported its first three cases of Covid-19. However, health centres are strictly adhering to Covid-19 prevention measures including monitoring of patients as directed by the Ministry of health.
The Representative of the Mzimba District Commissioner, Thomas Mwafongo, urged the community health workers and child protection workers to utilise the donation for its intended purposes. He said, ‘The bicycles that we are witnessing today should be used towards achieving the main objective as we all fight the spread of [Covid-19]’.
Source: Mana Online
Photo source: Save the Children
