MANGOCHI, December 27: As festivities continue across the world to mark the birth of Jesus Christ, the First Lady, Madam Gertrude Mutharika on Christmas Day cheered patients in the maternity ward of Mangochi District Hospital.
During her visit, Madam Mutharika presented assorted gifts to both ante and post natal patients. The gifts comprised orange squash, cooking oil, blankets, sugar, buckets, bath and laundry soap.
Speaking in an interview after the visit, Madam Mutharika said she decided to cheer patients at the hospital considering that the period of Christmas was meant to be for sharing whatever little one had.
“I am making this visit to the hospital on the understanding that the festive period is supposed to be a period of sharing and I would encourage people of good will to consider visiting people in hospital and prison because such people cannot celebrate the season with their families,” she said.
“I decided to come here to share with the patients, especially mothers who have given birth and those who are in labour the joy and happiness of Christmas and also encourage them that they will soon be discharged from the hospital,” she said.
District Health Officer for Mangochi, Dr. William Peno, commended the First Lady for taking time during her Christmas holiday to cheer the sick at the hospital, saying the facility is usually overwhelmed with high numbers of patients.
“We don’t take the First Lady’s visit to our hospital for granted. As you may be aware, Mangochi has one of the highest fertility rates in the country, thereby exerting pressure on the hospital’s resources.
“So when we have people like the First Lady come to cheer them it is always a relief to us,” Peno said.
According to Peno, at least there were 165 babies born at the hospital between December 20 and December 25, with 24 born on the eve of Christmas.
Madam Mutharika later christened one baby born on Christmas Day, Emmanuella Loveness.
