Old Mutual donates to Embangweni Mission Hospital, signs MoU with Sanwecka Technologies

Old Mutual Malawi Limited has donated over K4 million to Embangweni Mission Hospital in Mzimba to enable the facility renovate a mortuary. The company presented the donation at its Old Mutual Head Offices in Blantyre on Tuesday.

Embangweni Mission Hospital is one of church-aided facilities in the Northern Region, but has been facing financial challenges to provide optimal healthcare services to its clients.

This prompted a grouping of calling itself Friends of Embangweni to mobilize funds for the renovation of a mortuary at the facility.

Speaking after receiving the cheque, a representative of the grouping, Dr. Mary Mmbelwa, commended Old Mutual for the support, saying it will go a long way in addressing the challenges at the hospital.

“This mortuary we are talking about is an old one. It has not been renovated for the past decade and through what we are learning, we thought that we can also build a dignified mortuary where our people from Embangweni can be using,” said Mmbelwa.

“As of now, we are at K22 million, but the actual target that we are looking is K28 million and we have also the other shortfall in terms of how  the value of kwacha is because it is not the same with that we planned when we were starting this mobilization program.

“So, we are pleading with the corporate world to come forward and help us as Old Mutual has done. Currently, the mortuary that we have only manage to accommodate one body so it’s our wish that we should renovate it to start accommodating six bodies,” she added.

On his part, General Manager for Mthunzi Funeral Services Limited, Onismas Karakadzai, said they recognized the need for the company to be part of the development in communities in which it is operating.

Karakadzai applauded Friends of Embangweni for coming up with the fundraising initiative.

“This is so inspiring because it speaks volume of how determined the people from Embangweni are in ensuring that they are participating in bringing development in their community. This aligns well with our responsible business philosophy where we desire to make a long- lasting positive impact in the communities we are operating in,” he said.

At the same function, Old Mutual Malawi Limited has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sanweka Tech Companions in which Old Mutual has pumped in K5 million aimed at helping young people with skills development program and entrepreneurship that will see 30 young people trained in ICT skills which include cell phone repair, home gadgets repair as well as dish installation.

Speaking after receiving the donation, Chief Executive Officer for Sanwecka Tech Companions, Rasheed Kasito, said this is a timely gesture that will go a long way in the essence that it will provide the underprivileged youth to get different skills from Sanwecka.

“Our intention is to see youths establishing business of technology skills, so we are going to train 30 youths from Mlanga Village in Ndirande as we are also going to give them starter up tools so that they can open up businesses and be able to earn income.

“We choose Ndirande because it is one of the areas which skill works happens, so we thought it wise to add technology based skills on top of the skills that happens at the area,” said Kasito.

On her part, Patience Chatsika, Marketing and Corporate Affairs Manager at Old Mutual Malawi, said they thought it wise to help Sanwecka, as its programs align with what is in the business philosophy of Old Mutual, as it tells them to be impacting the community with resources.

“As a business, we are highly concerned with the problems of unemployment and we believe that equipping young people with skills would go a long way in changing the status quo,” Chatsika added.

Old Mutual Malawi Limited operates in several activities aiming at improving the business sector as well as communities at large.

Sharing is caring!