MACOHA pleads for involvement in Coronavirus awareness

 

By Everister Lungu, MANA

Malawi Council of the Handicapped (MACOHA) has asked that the stakeholders involved in the Coronavirus (COVID-19) preventive sensitization measures should also target tailor made ways to suit people with disabilities.

MACOHA’s Mzimba District Rehabilitation Officer, Jackson Chimowa said in an interview Thursday that COVID-19 preventive messages are vital for all people, including those with disabilities. 

“My appeal to stakeholders in awareness messages is that when mobilizing people, do not leave out persons with disabilities,” he pleaded.

Fiskan Gondwe, who is visually impaired, said most people with disabilities are illiterate and need messages crafted in a way that they would understand.

She asked government and other stakeholders in the fight against the virus to consider people with disabilities in the way they frame the sensitization messages.

“Braille is not for everyone because others are illiterate and they do not know how to use it. 

“In addition to that, I am not sure if the messages are transferred in any other form apart from radios and television, think of someone who has difficulties in hearing,” Gondwe said.

In Phalombe, child focussed NGO, Save the Children says the COVID-19 outbreak has affected more on children and there is the need to consider them more in its responses.

The organization’s director of programs operations, Frank Mwafulirwa made the remarks in Phalombe on Thursday during the launch of a COVID-19 Response Plan by the organization to be implemented to complement efforts being done by Phalombe District Council.

“Children have been burdened by this outbreak more than most adults,” Mwafulirwa said. “From the day the State President declared COVID-19 as a National State Disaster, children’s rights, such as the right to education, have been taken away from them, and currently more and more child rights continue to be jeopardized. 

He also said currently his organization was exploring ways of ensuring that other child rights such as access to health services are not completely crushed amid the COVID-19 lockdown.

Phalombe District on Wednesday launched COVID-19 by-laws that will govern control of the spread of the pandemic among which issues of child rights observation are also clearly highlighted.

During the launch, Save the Children also donated hygiene supplies worth K14 million in form of hand washing facilities and hand sanitisers to be distributed in health establishments and other public places as to be determined by the Council.

Phalombe District Council chairperson, Fedson Thomas hailed the organization for being the first to bring COVID-19 response long before  any case was registered in the district.

Thomas said Phalombe was at a high risk of registering cases due to its bordering with Mozambique where there are cases of the pandemic.

He added that Mozambicans and Malawians using unchartered routes between the two countries are the ones that give Phalombe high chances of registering the outbreak.

The launch comes as part of Save the Children’s national appeal of US$2 million to support new projects in Phalombe, Zomba, Ntcheu, Mwanza, Neno and Mzimba South in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.—Additional reporting by Sam Majamanda, MANA