Malawians in Switzerland raise K2.6m for flood victims
Malawi community in Switzerland has raised funds to ease the plight of people displaced by natural disasters in the country.
Chairman of the Malawi Association in Switzerland, a renowned writer Stanley Onjezani Kenani told Nyasa Times that the association coordinated the collection of donations and are remitting it to the Malawi Red Cross.
“Malawians in Switzerland were very concerned by the impact of the flood disaster and decided to do something about it. Overall, we donated approximately K2.6 million,” Kenani told Nyasa Times.
“This money did not only come from the pockets of Malawians but also from some of their workmates. It was decided to donate the money through the Malawi Red Cross because MRCS is Malawi’s oldest humanitarian organization which started its operations in 1932 as the Nyasaland Branch of the British Red Cross. The organization has over 30,000 volunteers across the country,” explained Kenani.
He said working through its local volunteers; Red Cross has been responding to the disaster and helping victims in all the affected areas.
“Apart from general response operations, the Red Cross has directly supported 7,000 displaced people with tarpaulins, family tents, shelter kits, mosquito nets and hospital tents.
“In addition to its own response, MRCS has also provided tarpaulins, blankets and body bags to the Government of Malawi for use in their response,” said Kenani/
Acknowledging receipt, MRCS Secretary General, Ms Ethel Kaimila, assured Malawians in Switzerland that the organisation was going to inform them what use their money has been put to.
The Malawi Red Cross Society has also been working with the government to educate people to move away from areas vulnerable to flooding, but this has proved a hard sell.
“Understandably people don’t want to leave their fields and livelihoods and places where they and their families have lived for generations,” explained Lawson Kasamale, secretary general of the Malawi Red Cross Society.
“Getting people to move is a real challenge for us and for the government because the flooding problem is not going to go away.”
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
thank you stanely and friends. please go deeper
Thank you very much.
Please, extend our gratitude to your friends and workmates.
Che Saidi mwaitha
Who is the Secretary General of MRCS, is it Ms Kaimila or Mr Kasamale? Two different people are referred to as Secretary General in the same article.
That’s a very welcome development. Life is not the same here, more and more troubles due to flood.
Thank u and keep up the gud work.
Thank u and keep up it.