Ethel Kamwendo storms Moyo ndi Mpamba Festival

 Thousands of music fans thronged Gynkhana grounds in Zomba Saturday for the Mpamba ndi Moyo Regional Music4Life Festival for the southern region an initiative aimed at promoting health issues through songs in the country.

The festival paraded maestro music gurus such as Ethel Kamwendo who was the main artist of the day supported by cerebrated young Katelele Ching’oma, Andiamo Music School Band and veteran Mlaka Maliro to ditch out their best performances under the auspices of USAID, Ministry of Health and Support for Service Delivery Integration (SSDI), who are promoting the Moyo ndi Mpamba campaign.

Ethel Kamwendo
Ethel Kamwendo

Ethel Kamwendo is one of the head liners- Moyo ndi Mpamba Brand Ambassadors in the country who have composed songs aimed at promoting health issues such as maternal heath, HIV and Aids and other health related matters in general with the belief of changing the social behavour of the people.

A record crowd, one of the largest in recent memories to gather in the old capital patronized the show, danced and enjoyed the satisfactory performance from the main artist, Kamwendo favorite’s songs in the late afternoon.

The Guest of honour, Zomba City Mayor, Joana Ntaja said the music festival was one of the great events to take place in the city adding while entertaining the residents, the messages focusing on promotion of health was equally important because a health community can contribute to development.

“I expect the people will get the message from the songs composed by the artists and will practice them. Prevention is better than cure. I believe if the population is healthy, it can initiate development easily,” Ntaja said.

In his remarks, Charles Senetre, a representative of Musicians Union of Malawi said contrary to the views of many who brand musicians as drunkards and associate them with immoral behaviors, the Ministry of Health has realized the need to use music in promoting social behavior change in health matters.

Senetre, therefore, vowed musicians in the country were ready to advance the concept in order to build a health nation that will contribute to national development through music messages.

Ministry of Health Eastern Zone Supervisor, Mac Donald Msadala said the government policy now is trickling towards prevention of diseases because curative approach is very expensive in purchase of drugs, therefore, the need to use music as one of the ways of conveying health messages to a large audience such as early health seeking behavious.

“Some of the conditions of people coming to hospital could be prevented like to encounter malaria people should be sensitized to sleep in treated mosquito nets every day. We can reduce the rate of malaria transmission,” Msadala said.

He also said the number of pregnant women dying when giving birth can be reduced if mothers are advised to come to hospital antenatal services to seek early medication.

“The use of musicians is a strategy that the Ministry of Health settled for in order to attract a large audience because people like music so messages of health issues can easily be disseminated effectively other than relying on formal and informal education sessions which can be boring and poorly attended,” Msadala observed.

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