M’mbelwa Council to train 120 community members in Mzimba on Covid-19
M’mbelwa District Council disaster desk officer, George Gopani has revealed that the local council will train 120 community members on COVID-19 prevention and management skills.
He made the remarks Thursday after orientation of District Civil Protection Committee (DCPC) Education cluster with funding from NORAD via Save the Children and CCAP Synod of Livingstonia.
Gopani said the council will train group village heads, area and village civil protection committees (ACPCs) and (VCPCs), parent-teacher associations and head teachers from Mzoma, Chasato and Kaphuta education zones.
“These structures are key to disaster risk management issues. ACPC and VCPC manage disaster risks at community level while PTAs mobilise parents to support children’s education during emergencies. GVHs have a command and can be an effective conduit for COVID-19 messages,” he said.
He said among other things, the structures will devise means on how best education initiatives can be implemented in the face of COVID-19.
According to Gopani, the initiative will also be implemented in other zones depending on the availability of funds.
On Tuesday this week, Zambian District Commissioner for Chasefu, Mustafa Banda advised M’mbelwa District Council to pull up its socks in the prevention of spread of the Coronavirus.
During a meeting at M’mbelwa District Council offices, Banda said:”We have observed that our measures on COVID-19, which we are enforcing are strict as compared to those by our counterparts from M’mbelwa District Council.”
He cited lack of quarantine centre at Mqocha on the border with Zambia and failure by the council to enforce closure of bottle stores as among other weaknesses.
“Zambians are coming to Malawi to drink beer where they can easily transmit the virus to Malawians or they can contract the virus in Malawi and transmit it in Zambia,” Banda said.
