Malawi graduates 70 rapid responders to help during disasters

Malawi has now 70 fully trained rapid response personnel that will save lives in times of disasters.

The response personnel have been drawn from various sectors. Speaking during the graduation ceremony, World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Preparedness and Response Flagship Coordinator, Dr Nelly Yatich, described the development as timely.

Yatich congratulated the graduating team for passing through a rigorous 28 days journey together, which was marked by rigorous training, practical sessions, and drills.

“Your commitment and resilience have brought us to this moment, and I stand before you both honoured and immensely proud as you graduate as emergency responders ready for deployment within 24 hours,” she said.

She commended their efforts and dedication invested, balancing class work, practical sessions, and the online pre-training courses that consumed nights and weekends.

She commended the commitment of the government of Malawi to building a robust emergency preparedness and response system.

“Our training aligns with the realities of the WHO AFRO region, currently responding to 147 events, including 128 disease outbreaks and 19 humanitarian crises. These range from polio and COVID-19 to conflicts, flooding, food insecurity, and drought. Understanding that health emergencies transcend borders, our focus on regional health security aims to prepare our teams for local emergencies while fostering collaboration with neighbouring countries,” she said

She said climate change poses a significant threat to public health, and our commitment to climate health resilience involves integrating climate considerations into emergency response strategies.

“Our focus on Rapid Response Teams recognizes their role as the backbone of emergency response efforts. Your training has equipped you with the skills, coordination abilities, and the latest tools and knowledge necessary to tackle a wide array of emergencies swiftly and decisively, ” she said.

Commenting on the new development, director of disaster Reverend Moses Chimphepo commended the World Health Organization for helping out with resources in funding this important training of 70 cohorts.

Mphepo said to respond to disasters, there are so many factors.

“You need money, you need equipment, but you also need human resources. So the human resource that you need, should be well conversant and well equipped, well skilled, so that they can assist the people accordingly. Because if you’re not careful, they can also become victims of the images,” he said.

“So, as a department, we are quite happy. After a functional review, one of the things that we identified was that I think we needed to have a ready standby team that we can deploy within the shortest period so that they can assist in time. So today, we have seen that one of those recommendations that came out of the after action review has been answered,” he said.

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