By Esinter Gideon- Contributor
As part of promise fulfillment, Illovo Sugar Malawi on Friday handed over the rehabilitated Nkhotakota district hospital’s Pharmacy which was gutted by fire months ago.
Illovo rehabilitated the pharmacy with partnership from ETHCO, Unitrans, Nkhanga essential services and Gadaworld.
Speaking during the handover ceremony, Director of Health and Social Services for Nkhotakota District Health Office, Wezi Mumba commended Illovo Sugar Company and its partners for supporting the rehabilitation work.
According to Mumba, in absence of the pharmacy the hospital opted for a Covid-19 and TB wards to store drugs.
“we were stranded as to where to put the drugs we had and that we will be having and had to use the COVID19 ward to store medicine which was a challenge because we had no space to place our TB patients that were moved to one ward to give space to COVID patients,” said Mumba
On his part, Acting District Commissioner for Nkhotakota Ben Tonho Matengeni appreciated the project saying the rehabilitation will benefit all Nkhotakota and surrounding community residents as the hospital helps a lot of people
“It is the duty of the district council to provide a conducive environment for those who are doing business in the district, so we are working hand in hand with them and it is a good thing to see that we are engaging each other in developing the district. We will continue to work with them so that people of Nkhotakota benefits as we have all today,” Matengeni explains.
Illovo Acting General Manager Jeromy Ngolombe said it was an exciting day for the Illovo Dwangwa management as it was another step towards fulfilling their commitment in ensuring that the welfare and wellbeing of Illovo employees and all citizens in Nkhotakota and beyond are looked after.
“We saw it right to come in and play a role in rehabilitating the districts pharmacy when we were asked and we hope that this pharmacy will enable the hospital to provide effective and efficient medical care to its patients and clients,
“This is not the first time to come in and lend a hand to the district hospital as we have also donated other medical items this year in February as part of the hospitals requirements to fight the second wave of COVID 19 pandemic and we will continue to commit in complementing governments efforts towards achieving development goals in the health sector wherever possible,” Ngolombe said.
Nkhotakota district hospital pharmacy has been rehabilitated with Mk 8 million which has managed to recover drugs, aluminum shelves, ceiling, air conditioning among others, that were destroyed by fire on 26th October 2020.
