Malawi’s Ministry of Health has received over two million pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) donated by the COVID-19 Action Fund for Africa (CAF-Africa) to 10,085 community health workers nationwide.
The Minister of Health, Honorable Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda MP., symbolically received the PPE on behalf of the government of Malawi at Chileka Health Centre in Lilongwe on 30 November 2020.
“The Ministry of Health respects the focus of CAF-Africa on providing PPE for community health care workers such as the ones at Chileka Health Centre because indeed they are the largest category of health workers in the country who provide a range of primary health care services in the communities,” said Honorable Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda MP.
At the handing over ceremony, VillageReach—CAF-Africa partner in Malawi presented 1,968,000 million masks; 100,000 pairs of gloves, and 39,466 face shields to the Ministry of Health.
“The availability of PPE allows the Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) not only to play an active role in Covid-19 National Response, but also to maintain other essential health services during the pandemic. This specific support for Community Health Workers is also evidenced by the participation of VillageReach in supply chain management activities such as distribution of PPEs in Malawi,” said Honorable Chiponda.
The ceremony marked the official handover of the PPE to the MoH for Malawi’s Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) the largest cadre of health workers serving at the frontlines of the COVID-19 response in the country. Other high-level participants included Dr. Charles Mwansambo, Secretary for Health, Mr. Maziko Matemba, National Community Health Ambassador, Mr Godfrey Kadewere, HTSS Director, Ms Doreen Ali, Deputy director, National Community Health Services, Mr Wilson, Asibu, National Coordinator, Community Health Association of Malawi, Chief Kwataine, Board of Trustees—VillageReach in Malawi and Alinafe Kasiya, VillageReach Country Director.
“Community health workers are frontline workers who provide immunisations, child days and other under five health care services so they need to be supported to ensure seamless services provision,” said Alinafe Kasiya, VillageReach Country Director.
Including Malawi, CAF-Africa has donated PPE to a dozen countries in West, Central, East, and Southern Africa.
The COVID-19 Action Fund for Africa is a continent-wide collaborative effort to aggregate and address the unmet need for COVID-19 related supplies for community health workers across as many as 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. CAF-Africa pools resources to secure competitive prices for quality-assured essential supplies and works with in-country partners and governments to deploy products to the last mile.