Items filtered by date: May 2025

By Shaffie Bakali

Mangochi, July 20, Mana: Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, Jean Sendeza on Wednesday encouraged men to work collaboratively with their wives as a way of ensuring good welfare and healthy growth for children in their respective homes.

The Minister said this at Chiwaula village, in the area of Senior Chief Katuli in Mangochi district during the official handover ceremony of Chiwaula Community Based Child Centre (CBCC), one of the CBCCs in the district constructed with funding from the World Bank, through the Investing in Early Years Project (IEYP).

She said good welfare of children includes sending them to CBCC, hence opening of the place.

Sendeza encouraged parents to be on forefront ensuring that the place is protected for the benefit of all children in the area.

The minister called on the community members to engage in a strong fight towards ending early marriages, child labour and discrimination of special groups of people such as elderly, handicapped and people with albinism.

"The ministry has launched National Men Engagement Strategy aimed at including our men to take part in all works deemed female dominated and also take a leading role against issues such as Gender Based Violence’s and Sexual Harassment" she said.

Member of Parliament for Mangochi East, Francesca Masamba commended the ministry for its support towards early childhood development, saying this is the only way to go in as far as education is concerned.

She said the newly constructed CBCC in her area will act as a motivation for more children to attend early childhood education.

Chairperson for Mangochi District Council Ivy Sande expressed gratitude to the ministry of gender for uplifting education in Mangochi through infrastructure development.

So far 15 CBCCs have been constructed in Mangochi under the 5 year IEYP which is coming to an end this year.

By Chilungamo Missi

Blantyre, July 20, MANA: Chiradzulu District Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) Focal Person, James Lisausyo has commended Evidence Action Organisation for its interventions that ensure that communities have access to safe water in the district.

Lisausyo made the remarks on Thursday in Chikankheni Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Mpama in the district, during Evidence Action field visit aimed to appreciate the Chlorine Dispensers which the organisation installed in the district.

He said that with the intervention he expects a decrease in waterborne diseases saying the only way to deal with such diseases is water and food hygiene.

“We are coming from a period where the country experienced Cholera outbreak and Chiradzulu was not spared.

“The development is commendable as currently the country is dealing with Polio which spreads as a result of ingesting unhygienic food and drinking unsafe water, so Chlorine dispensers are ideal in the fight against the disease,” said the IDSR.

Speaking on the same, Village Headman Chikankheni said that his village welcomed the development which has assisted in curbing waterborne diseases since the chlorine dispensers were installed in his village three months ago.

“My village has 166 families, and we only have two water boreholes, a situation which forces us to drink from nearby wells. In the past, these wells were unprotected but now Chlorine dispensers have been installed in these wells and majority of the people have embraced them,” he said.

In her remarks, Evidence Action Associate Area Coordinator for Blantyre and Chiradzulu districts, Annie Laisani said that the organisation has installed 1,435 Chlorine dispensers in Chiradzulu district adding that they have so far installed dispensers in eight districts; Mwanza, Neno, Blantyre, Zomba, Balaka, Mangochi and Machinga.

She added: “Evidence Action came in to support government in curbing waterborne diseases and the programme is making positive strides although in some areas people are spreading myths concerning the dispensers, but with help from health workers we are addressing such problems by making sure that people have the right information.”

Innocent Chunga

Nkhota-kota, July 20, MANA. The Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi WESM, has vowed to strengthen its effort towards the restoration of bird population in areas around Chia Lagoon in Nkhotakota district.

Speaking on Wednesday at the launch of a 312 million Kwacha Chia Lagoon Waterbird project in the district, WESM Programs Manager Blessings Chingagwe, said the organization will assist communities in protecting birds, after noticing that Chia Lagoon is not gazetted as a protected area.

"The project will work with communities to better manage and restore the vital lagoon ecosystem, reverse decline in vulnerable and declining bird species and improve livelihoods in the communities." She said.

Nkhotakota District Environmental Officer, Jane Kayira encouraged WESM to work together with other organizations that are already on the ground with related projects at the lagoon to use already existing structures for smooth implementation of the project.

She said use of already existing community structures ensures project sustainability because other partners like Ripple Africa are implementing a similar fish for tomorrow project in the area which is looking at the ecosystem around the lagoon.

WESM has been dedicated to protecting Malawi's remarkable biodiversity and ecosystems for over 75 years. With support from UK based organization Dawn initiative, the project will work with nine villages from the areas of Senior Chief Mwadzama and Traditional Authority Kalimanjira and Nkhanga in the district.

WESM will work with partners in the project including Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change through Department of Fisheries, Environmental Affairs, Ministry of Tourism through Department of National Parks and Wildlife, Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST), Micro loan Foundation, African Parks and Ripple Africa.

By Yamikani Yapuwa

Blantyre, July 20, Mana: Tamandani Chikuni from Jiya village, Traditional Authority Ntholowa in Zomba is a happy mother of three who successfully managed to get all her children vaccinated during the polio vaccination campaign at a go.

Chikuni said she does not take for granted the fact that she took her children to Magomero Health Centre on the day the campaign started and found the vaccine readily available because the facility used to experience erratic supply of vaccine in all the previous campaigns.

“We live very far from the District Hospital and other surrounding health centres. I remember visiting our health centre only to be told that there are no vaccines even for routine immunizations.

“In those cases, I would just go back home for it is hard for me to travel to the District hospital or the other health centers because of distance. We live in a rural set up where many parents and guardians cannot afford transport fare to Zomba District Hospital,” narrated Chikuni.

Another parent, Lucy Phiri added that there were instances her child was due to receive the routine immunizations only to find none at the health centre resulting into given future dates for her to come and check if they will have vaccines in stock.

“That used to put our children at risk as we wait for the dates and in some cases one would go on the given date only to find that the vaccine has finished,” explains Phiri.

Corroborating Chikuni and Phiri’s words, Wyson Matiki, Disease Control Assistance at the facility attested that it has indeed always been hard for Magomero to access drugs for the campaigns and routine immunization because of its topography and distance from the District Health Office.

“We have very bad roads here and the condition worsened after Cyclone Freddy making it hard for vehicles from the District to come and deliver vaccines at our facility in time.

“We also normally have issues with shortage of transport from there end. There are times that the vehicle is engaged somewhere or there is no fuel at the district.  This suffocated delivery of important supplies like vaccines during campaigns as well as routine immunizations,” said Matiki.

However, the case was different during the recent polio campaign as drones were used to deliver Polio vaccine to health centres resulting into constant supply of the vaccine during the entire campaign, thanks to United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).

Unicef adopted the innovation of Drone Driven Vaccine Campaign which saw drones delivering vaccines to health facilities that are in hard to reach areas in Zomba, Mangochi and Chikwawa Districts.

The child-centered UN agency engaged Swoop Aero to do the job thereby ensuring fast, safe and effective delivery of vaccines to facilities like Magomero and Chisi Island in Zomba as well as Makanjira in Mangochi just to mention  a few using drones.

Cold Chain and Vaccine Management Consultant for UNICEF Simon Kondowe said this made it possible for every eligible child in the hard to reach areas to have access.

“We wanted to ensure that when the child comes to the facility for vaccines, they get it right away because it is always available at that facility.

“With the approach, we did not have issues like vaccine stock outs because the drones were able to respond in time hence having consistence supply of vaccine,” said Kondowe.

On top of that, Matiki also indicated that the drones eased the transportation problem which resulted receiving vaccines and commodities in time for the Polio campaign and routine works.

“In the past campaigns, we could stay the whole day during the campaign period without administering vaccines to children as we waited for a vehicle to do the delivery.

“But the drones made our job easy. We were serving the children as they come because the vaccines were delivered on time making it available all the time.

 “We had never gone a day without vaccines and we are optimistic that we will reach out to all the over 16,000 children in our catchment area by the end of the campaign since there is always constant supply,” explains the excitedly Matiki.

Operations Manager for Swoop Aero Malawi, Anne Nderitu noted that it had a good experience delivering vaccines in time and making an impact in the immunization campaign.

“We were able to deliver vaccines in three districts for this polio campaign as of Wednesday, 12 July, we had delivered 8500 doses in hard to reach health facilities in Zomba, Chikwawa and Mangochi.

“We had our drone operators based at the district hospitals who received vaccines from the Expanded Programme on Immunisation coordinators and package the vaccines in the drone.

“We put ice packs and cold chain. We package properly so that right conditions are maintained, we also have the temperature logger to track the temperature as the flight is ongoing,” said Nderitu.

She added that at the health facilities, health workers were trained to receive the drone, take out the cargo and the drone flies back to the district hospital.

On the timeliness of drones to deliver the vaccines, Bernard Ndawala, Drone Operator at Swoop Aero felt that time factor is critical especially in health care and drones are the fastest option.

“With a drone, a journey is cut short. We have been able to deliver polio vaccines to health centres which are three and half hours away from the District Hospital within 25 minutes or less.

“We have Chisi Island and for one to reach there, you need to go by road, then take a boat to the island and finally cycle to the health facility which is a long process.

“Using a drone, in less than 20 minutes, we were able to deliver vaccines therefore saving lives of children who could have been denied access if traditional transportation was used,” stated Ndawala.

He also cited another example of how they have been able to deliver vaccines to Makanjira in Mangochi within 45 minutes when initially the journey takes close to six hours when using an ambulance due to damaged roads and bridges.

Kondowe affirmed that Unicef is committed to ensuring that immunization process in the country is up to standard and supply chain system is one of  the areas that needs to be strengthened to make sure that facilities have enough vaccine at all times.

“So we are going to continue using drone delivery for future campaigns so long as we still have issues of accessibility in hard to reach areas,” he said.

He added that Unicef aims at expanding its reach to some facilities whom they have not been able to reach out to all in a bid to promote accessibility at all times.

By Robert Nayeja

Dar es Salaam, June 25, Mana: Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Sosten Gwengwe says, African Human Capital Heads of state summit taking place in Tanzania will accelerate economic opportunities among the youth in Malawi.

Gwendwe made the remarks on Monday in Dar ES Salaam Tanzania, where the continental Summit is taking place.

The Malawi leader, President Dr Lazarus MacCarthy Chakwera is expected to attend the summit which will be held from 25th to 26th July, 2023 at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre

He said World Bank being one of the big partners in development has organized the summit to look at issues of Human Capital development and how it can assist in the development of people in Africa including Malawi.

“This Summit will foster technical discussion and also provide a platform where, experiences will be shared on human capital. As a nation we will benefit a lot as we will be able to explore how best we should reach out to the young generation with economic opportunities,” said Gwengwe

Gwengwe added that the two-day summit will bring a bottom-up demand to human capital prioritization and investments in African countries by discussing challenges and bottlenecks to human capital accumulation along with identification of priorities and drivers of growth.

Gwengwe said the President has been invited to speak on demographic dividend, with a consideration that Malawi has a young population which needs special attention in order to hasten creation of economic opportunities such as jobs and skills development.

The Africa Human Capital Heads of State Summit comes in response to engagements with government focal points on the need to draw attention to the role of human capital in economic growth.

 The (JNICC) summit will be held under the theme, “linking investments in human capital to economic growth and harnessing the demographic dividend, by addressing learning poverty and the skills gap for youth and women.

Learning poverty is the share of children unable to read and understand a simple text by the age of 10, estimated to be 89% in Africa.

The Department of Buildings in the Ministry of Transport and Public Works is optimistic that construction works of the Clinic will be completed by next Month.

Meanwhile the contractor is doing finishing works on the access road and carpark.

According to the project manager Davies Mbewe the department of building is expected to handover a complete furnished clinic comprising of two holding rooms, General store, Linen stores, Drug stores, Sluice, two Examination rooms, Dispensary, Laboratory and Specimen stores, Registration and records room, In-Charge Office, Staffroom and Kitchenette and Public Change rooms.

When completed the clinic will help civil servants working at capital hill and the vicinity to easily access health services during working hours.

Kasungu, June 2, Mana: Commissioner for Central East Police Region, Rhoda Manjolo, has asked police officers in the region to be dedicated and disciplined and forge a cordial relationship amongst themselves in the course of executing their duties.

Manjolo was speaking Thursday during the launch of a K7.5 million Central East Police Region Commissioner’s trophy at Kasungu Stadium.

She said discipline, physical fitness and dedication are crucial traits in a police officer alongside strengthened work relationship. 

Said Manjolo: “This trophy was initiated by our Inspector General Merlyn Yollam to ensure that as police officers we are always physically fit, united and disciplined at all times.

“It is my hope that this sporting competition will promote discipline, unity and physical fitness which are important elements in our work as police.”

The commissioner also courted prospective partners to support the initiative through donation of sporting furniture like balls, boots, among others

Regional Operations Officer for the region Mike Sitolo said the launched trophy will motivate police officers and help them cool off when off duty.

“We are thankful to the Commissioner for this trophy as it will promote good health in us and at the same time keep us busy,” he said.

Among the sports disciplines to be competed in the trophy are football, netball, volleyball and tag of war. Two district finalists will compete at national level at a date yet to be set.

During the launch which was spiced by a march from the regional police headquarters and supported by First Capital Bank, Central East regional football club played against Dowa Police in a match that ended one all draw.

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Karonga, June 4 Mana: Chitipa United Football Club made history on Saturday following their 1-0 TNM Super League victory against  the defending champions,FCB Nyasa Big Bullets in a match which was played at Karonga Stadium.

This is the first time for Chitipa to beat Bullets in  TNM Super League and the first defeat of the season for the defending champions who are leading on the log table with 17 points from eight games.

Chitipa who are fresh from another huge 1-0 victory against Bullets’s archrival Mukuru Mighty Wanderers, went into the game with the odds against them as they had never beaten Bullets in the previous six super league encounters before Saturday’s win.

 Chitipa only managed to salvage a point from a 2-2 draw with Bullets in the 2019 season.

On top of that Chitipa United have only two players with super league experience as the rest are from the lower league.

The lone goal of the match came in the 53rd minute from Rajab Nyirenda’s high free kick near the corner kick spot, which Bullets’ goalie, Richard Chimbamba failed to clear. To some extent, it looked like an own goal through the Bullets defender's header.

The goal was enough to disorient the defending champions completely who never recovered.

Played in front of a full-to-capacity stadium under fine weather, from the on set it was hard to tell who the defending champions were, save for the uniform colours and the faces. Chitipa United FC dominated making more goal attempts than Bullets. The first half ended in a 0-0 draw.

In the second half, the defending champions started with playing quick football but the tactic got resistance from Chitipa United FC defense. Led by Chris Lwemba who was named man of the match for the third time in a row, the trio including Blessings Joseph and Peter Mughogho proved impossible to penetrate.

Bullets tried in extra time to push for a draw with Macfarene Ngwira, who was introduced in the second half replacing Patrick Mwaungulu, making dangerous passes and crosses up front but his effort was not good enough to register anything on the score sheet. Under pressure, Chitipa United FC goalie, George Chikooka and Stain Patrick were served with yellow cards in the dying minutes of the game for displaying perceptible delaying tactics and rough play respectively.

Coach for Bullets, Callisto Pasuwa admitted that Chitipa United’s zeal was no match for his team.

“We could see the zeal from our counterparts trying as much as they could to get to the ball. Our opponents planned well and did well in terms of approach. We will go back and re-assess ourselves,” Pasuwa said.

However, he said all is not lost as the team have 21 more games ahead of them. Chitipa United Coach, Mac Donald Ntetemera on the other hand said all he is doing is to instill the spirit of hard work in his charges adding that each fixture has its game plan. “I am a teacher and not a coach. I am teaching the players to play modern football as you can see. Expect more surprises. I can't say what my target is for now,” said Ntetemera. Karonga Stadium is  today hosting another thriller as Karonga United FC takes on Mighty Mukuru Wanderers Chitipa are now on position four on the log table with four points behind Bullets which is leading on the table.

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Phalombe, June 4, Mana: Habitat for humanity has donated shelter materials to 430 Cyclone Freddy survivors’ households from Traditional Authority Jenala in Phalombe district to help them construct temporary houses.

The materials donated include timber, robes, hammers, panga knives, hoes, blankets, shovels, nails, tents among others amounting to K160 million.

Speaking in an interview on Saturday  during the donation, the organization’s Country Director Anock Kapila said shelter was the worst affected sector during cyclone Freddy and the donation is one way of fulfilling the organization's vision of providing decent house to everyone.

He explained: " We are going to teach them how to construct temporary houses using the materials provided and also how to construct better houses when they have resources to reconstruct their houses."

Speaking earlier, Director of Planning and Development for Phalombe Kelvin Harawa thanked the organisation for the timely assistance saying this will go a long to assist survivors whose houses were destroyed.

He added that in the meantime, Phalombe Council is appealing to  well-wishers to continue supporting the district for resilience in all sectors of education, health, agriculture, housing among others.

“Crops were washed away during Cyclone Freddy and this affected nutrition status of the affected population. Further, school enrollment has also been affected,” he added.

Harawa then asked the beneficiaries to use the materials received for intended purpose saying once found selling, the law will take its course.

He said, "whether you are going to sell in Limbe, we are going to trace you with assistance from police."

One of the beneficiaries Enifa Basikolo thanked the organisation for the assistance saying she has been staying with relatives in a kitchen together with her three children since Cyclone Freddy started and the materials will help her to relocate. 

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Thyolo, June 2, Mana: Member of Parliament for Thyolo Central, Dr. Ben Phiri on Thursday donated a set of jerseys to Thyolo Police Station football team to help the team compete favorably in the ongoing Eastern Commissioners Trophy.

In an interview with Malawi News Agency (Mana), Phiri said the donation was one way of encouraging the police officers to participate in sporting activities because this will help to promote their physical fitness. 

Phiri said promoting sporting activities among the security officers will help to keep their bodies in shape; hence, will work effectively in fighting against crime in the district.

Thyolo Police Station Officer In-Charge, Isaac Norman applauded the legislator for the donation; saying sporting activities among the officers will promote and strengthen relationship between communities and police officers because the two parties will have the opportunity to interact socially.

“This valuable contribution will undoubtedly enhance unity amongst police officers and the communities in different formations and it will also enhance the sharing of crime information,” he said.

He appealed to other well-wishers in the country to emulate the example by Phiri, noting it is the responsibility of citizen to fight against crime in the country. 

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