Illovo partners with Chikwawa and Nkhotakota District Hospitals for CoVID-19 mobile vaccine center drive
Illovo Sugar Malawi Plc has partnered with Chikwawa and Nkhotakota district hospitals to enhance CoVID-19 vaccination uptake through mobile vaccine center services.
Illovo Sugar Malawi, whose sugarcane estates are in these two districts — in Nchalo and Dwangwa — have decided to partner with the government to increase CoVID-19 uptake for communities that are far from vaccine centres.
A team of medical staff are setting up centers at each location for a day as well as conducting health talks with community members while administering the spot jabs.
A public address system is mounted on vehicles is going around in the location encouraging people to get vaccinated and the best way to protect themselves while at the same time help in fighting its continued transmission.
Illovo Sugar Malawi’s Managing Director Lekani Katandula said: “The aim of their intervention is to get as many people vaccinated as possible that failed due to access challenges they faced that the vaccination centres are far from their communities.
“The approach is a direct results of the intervention project as the company was asked by some members to consider this. Illovo has paid for the fuel, data and lunch allowances for the staff going off stations.
“The company has also paid for the public address system costs and have engaged temporary Water and Sanitation Health (WASH) officers to help coordinate the programs. The district hospitals are providing the vehicles, vaccine and medical personnel.”
In response to the CoVID-19 pandemic, Illovo Sugar Malawi Plc contributed resources towards the fight since its outset last year — donating medical equipment and supplies worth K100 million for Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Chikwawa District Hospital and its Kasinthula isolation centre as well as Nkhotakota District Hospital.
At the outset of the pandemic last year, Illovo donated K10 million for Kameza isolation center in form of hospital beds and monitors and a further K60 million support for Blantyre City Council, Chikwawa and Nkhotakota.
Internally, the company initiated a campaign tagged ‘COVID-19: It’s In Our Hands’ which we launched in April 2020 aimed at encouraging all employees to commit to behaving in a manner that will help stop the spread of the pandemic at work, in their homes and in their communities.
Illovo Sugar always supports other emergencies that affect the communities in its estate district and recently launched a K75 million-worth community intervention project to help with the fight against the spread of CoVID-19 in Dwangwa and Nchalo aimed at engaging with the communitites to highlight underlying behaviours that have created resistance to adherence to preventive measures as well as vaccine uptake.
Illovo Sugar (Malawi) Plc is listed on the Malawi Stock Exchange with 76% of the issued share capital held by the Illovo Group and the balance by public and other institutional investors.
The corporate office is based at Limbe with two operations at Nchalo in the South Region and Dwangwa in the Central, producing sugar cane and raw and refined sugar, together with specialty sugars at Nchalo.
Illovo Malawi is the country’s sole sugar producer with more than 60% of total sugar sales sold to domestic consumer and industrial markets, and the balance exported to preferential markets in the EU and the USA, and the surrounding region.
In Malawi, as in Illovo’s other countries of operation except for South Africa, the agricultural operations are significantly enhanced by several factors, including access to secure water sources for irrigation, excellent soils, and ideal climatic conditions to promote optimum cane growth.
Combined, these attributes result in high yielding sugar cane crops which are harvested annually.
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