Canadian NGO donates K72m medical supplies to Dzaleka Health Centre

Health Partners International of Canada (HPIC), a Canadian non-governmental organization (NGO) – has responded positively to the appeal President Lazarus Chakwera made to the international community for financial and material support towards national efforts to combat Covid-19.

HPIC has donated K72 million worth of essential drugs to the Ministries of Health and Homeland Security.

The drugs have been channeled to Dzaleka Health Centre, which is the only public health facility operating a Covid-19 Isolation Centre in Dowa.

The Canadian NGO is working in partnership with a local Christian organization, There Is Hope (TIH), which is offering people living in and around Dzaleka Refugee Camp opportunities for education and economic livelihoods.

And speaking when he presented the donation on Friday, TIH executive director, Innocent Magambi, said HPIC is committed to complementing the efforts by the Malawi Government in its struggle against the pandemic.

“We know that the Malawi Government is more concerned as a father and a mother of this nation. But this is an effort that everyone needs to put his or her resources in, whether you are a foreigner or national. And this includes mobilizing funding as well as taking precautionary measures to stop further spread of the virus,” said Magambi.

Dzaleka Health Centre in-charge, Henry Lali, said with the emergence of Covid-19, the facility faces even heightened pressure to provide quality healthcare services to the patients.

Lali added that the donated medicines will therefore ease the pressure the facility is currently facing to respond to patients of various communicable ailments, including malaria and cough.

“On behalf of the Dowa District Health Office and indeed on behalf of the Malawi Government, I wish to extend my gratitude to HPIC and TIH for remaining resolute in supporting Dzaleka Health Centre because, just six months ago, they also donated various drugs to our facility,” said Lali.

Associate Public Health Officer at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Dr. Kingsley Ojeikere, said Dzaleka Refugee Camp is prone to the pandemic due as thousands of refugees live are crammed in a small piece of land.

Ojeikere disclosed that the camp registered a few Covid-19 cases recently, but all of them recovered successfully.

On 13 January 2021, President Lazarus Chakwera declared a state of national disaster as Covid-19 took its toll on Malawians with over 555 people certified to have died of the disease since April 2020.

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