The Community of Sant’Egidio through its health progame called DREAM, has expressed commitment to complement government’s efforts in fighting HIV/AIDS and TB through a K350 million project to be carried out in three districts in Malawi.
This is according to Sant’Egidio Malawi’s Project Manager, Bruce Tambwali, who said the project which has been named ‘Bridge the Gap’, will be run in the districts of Balaka, Machinga and Mangochi.
Tambwali said Sant’Egidio’s DREAM program together with the department of health at Balaka District Health Office, is implementing this project with support from the Italian Cooperation Agency (AICS) from Italy.
He said the two-year project is aimed at improving health service delivery in the material districts as over 100 health personnel are set to be trained on how to manage different health cases, HIV/AIDS and TB inclusive.
The Project Manager further indicated that the project also seeks to reach out to over 11,000 HIV and TB patients while on the other hand reducing cases of malaria, hepatitis, water borne diseases and other tropical neglected diseases.
“The Community of Sant’Egidio through the DREAM program, wants to improve quality service delivery in 19 health facilities and we are also geared to strengthen laboratory services in the three districts; Balaka, Machinga and Mangochi.
“The project which is worth over K350 million, will as well help communities in these districts to easily access various health services. So, this just expresses our commitment to help improve the country’s health sector,” explained Tambwali.
Reacting to the development, Director of Health and Social Services for Balaka district Dr Eugene Katenga Kaunda, thanked the community of Sant’Egidio and its partner, AICS for implementing the Bridge Gap project.
Katenga Kaunda described the project as timely and said it will go a long way to improve livelihoods in Balaka and the other two districts.
“We thank the community of Sant’Egidio which has through DREAM rolled out this multimillion project which seeks to reduce HIV/AIDS pandemic in our district, thus Balaka, Mangochi and Machinga as well.
“The project will as well support the district with Covid-19 PPEs and HIV capacity building to our health workers on case management and prevention and it will also provide IT equipment to all our ART clinics in 15 health centers. We really appreciate for the support,” said Kaunda.
The Community of Sant’Egidio is a layman Catholic association which is dedicated to social services.
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