Japanese Government donates K250m worth of vehicles to Malawi’s health sector

* Japan stands in solidarity with the people of Malawi in promoting efforts to achieve universal health coverage

* We will continue to work closely with the government and other partners such as WFP to support the health sector

By Roselyn Phiri, MANA

The Japanese Government, through World Food Programme (WFP), on Thursday donated three 4×4 refrigerated EPI vehicles worth MK250 million to Malawi, to help ferry vaccines to hard-to-reach communities.

At the handover ceremony in Lilongwe, Japan Ambassador to Malawi, Oya Yoichi said they decided to assist the Ministry of Health to make health care system more resilient to the impacts of climate change, including natural disasters.

“Japan stands in solidarity with the people of Malawi in promoting efforts to achieve universal health coverage, which is one of Japan’s key priorities,” he said. “We will continue to work closely with the government of Malawi and other partners such as WFP to support the health sector in Malawi,” he said.

WFP country director in Malawi, Paul Turnbull said the core mandate of the UN WFP as the world’s largest humanitarian organisation includes services in transport and logistics.

“This equipment of three motor vehicles being handed over today will enhance the capacity of the government of Malawi by further strengthening temperature sensitive logistics and capabilities,” he said.

In her vote of thanks, Minister of Health, Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda said the support has come at the right time when the Ministry is doing a series of vaccination campaigns.

“The vehicles are part of the broader response to the CoVID-19 pandemic and other vaccination programs in Africa,” she said. “Immunization is one of the key strategies that the ministry is using to prevent communicable diseases especially vaccine preventable diseases in the country.

“Let me thank the World Food Programme for procurement of the vehicles including our partners for the support they give us in the provision of health services including immunization services in the country,” she said.