As Malawi seeks to eliminate HIV/AIDS by 2030, Non-governmental organization called Mzake ndi Mzake has taught Police officers on how they can tackle issues of prevention, care and counseling in the fight against HIV.
The training which attracted 15 police officers heading different departments of Phalombe Police Station was held last week from 21 to 23 January 2020 in the district.
Project Manager for the organization, Martin Nkhata, in an interview, said as their project is about to end they decided to impart knowledge to the police officers who apart from enforcing the law also do the advocacy on the spread of the disease when handling cases such as gender based violence.
“We see that this training will help a lot with spreading the message of how we can prevent from this disease as you know that our Police officers work closely with different communities which we also target and we hope that they will be carrying the message of prevention to people,” he said.
He added that the training has also benefitted the police officers themselves on how they can prevent from getting the virus during rescuing missions when accidents occur and among other occasions.
On his part, the officer in charge for Phalombe Police station John Nkhoma commended Mzake ndi Mzake for whatever they shared with them during the training saying these have increased their capacity in terms of knowledge.
“This training was very important for us as it has helped in increasing the knowledge of the Police officers who attended this and not only them but others who weren’t here since these officers will also share the knowledge to others,” said Nkhoma.
Police officers who attended the three-day training are heading departments such as community policing, victim support unit and among others and at the end they received certificates of attendance.
