Written By Alick Mhango
KARONGA: In strive to eradicate cases of maternal and neonatal death in Karonga, the Foundation for Community Support Services (FOCUS) through its 3 year Reaching to Mother and Child project has trained 45 Village Saving Loan Association (VSL) to be effective with their services in order to deal with the problems that are fueling the death of pregnant mothers and new born babies in the district especially in the rural areas which are rampantly increasing.
Speaking to the media after the five days training, FOCUS Executive Director Cossam Munthali said economic empowerment is the only measure to deal with the hunger and economic crisis that the country is facing especially if issues of the maternal and neonatal death in the district is concerned.
According to Munthali, a lot of women in the district tend to lose their lives or having complications during their pregnant period due to transportation problems as well as not taking the balance diet food.
“As FOCUS through our project we are committed to eradicate all the problems that are fueling to maternal and neonatal death in the district and among other things, is equipping the VSL groups on how they can be effective,” said Munthali.
“This is because here in our district such death arises due to lack of transport to ferry pregnant mothers in the rural areas as well as lack of balance diet food for the pregnant mothers. Therefore this training will help the pregnant mothers to be economically empowered so that they can manage to buy the recommended food and paying the transport themselves thereby reducing complications and death,” Munthali explained.
In his remarks, Antony Kayira who is the president of the group commended the organization for the work shop claiming that it has come at the right time when pregnant women as well as the community as a whole are struggling to find something to eat.
“I believe with the hunger and economic problem that the country is in, this training will really change our lives especially of the pregnant mothers who always over work to find food and transport,” said Kayira.
Meanwhile the Karonga district council has described the project as the only hope for the reduction of maternal and neonatal death in the district.
FOCUS in partnership with the Adventist Health Services (AHS) is carrying the project with 1.3 billion kwacha financial support from Christian Aid DFID.
