Southern Region Football Association (SRFA) have announced that ThumbsUp Premier league outfit Bangwe All Stars have qualified as the region’s representative in the 2023 TNM Super League eague.
The development follows FOMO FC’s 4-0 defeat to Nyasa Big Bullets Reserves last Sunday.
Bangwe All Stars will meet Nyasa Big Bullets Reserves in the SFRA League final on Saturday at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre but the result will not change anything as Reserves will not be promoted because it is a feeder to Nyasa Big Bullets main team.
According to SFRA Chairperson Raphael Humba, Nyasa Big Bullets Reserves can be champions but cannot be promoted into the top flight league.
“Whether Bangwe wins or lose on Saturday in the final they will still be the team to earn promotion to the Super league from our region,” said Humba.
Malawi NCD Alliance has called for urgent integration of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) into HIV prevention and care to ensure there is equitable access to health services in public health facilities.
The Project Coordinator for Malawi NCD Alliance, Samuel Kumwanje, has made the call in light of the shrinking financial resources for addressing HIV and the NCD burden in Malawi.
Currently, the total cost of implementing the Health Sector Strategic Plan 3 (2022-2030) for all the eight years is estimated at US$31.2 billion (MWK32 trillion), representing the full resource need before the prioritization.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Kumwanje said this poses a huge challenge for Malawi to raise adequate resources to train health workers, invest in sustainable health infrastructure, procure medical equipment and supplies to tackle NCDs and HIV.
“Unfortunately, funders such as Global Fund for HIV, TB and Malaria are also struggling, hence integration of HIV and NCDs is one of the viable options at hand. As the treatment options for HIV have expanded and improved, management approaches have transitioned from acute, emergency care to chronic care,” reads the statement in part.
Kumwanje further stated that chronic care management for HIV is a platform that can be leveraged to integrate NCD services that are otherwise lacking since there are similarities in prevention, detection, care and long-term management of HIV and NCDs, which can enable integration of NCDs into HIV clinics.
According to Kumwanje, at present, data shows that although mortality from HIV has decreased by greater than 50 percent since 2010 with a stable TB death rate of 14 cases per 100,000 people in 2020, NCDs and injury mortality has been on an increase over the last decade now accounting for over 40 percent of mortality in the country.
NCDs are estimated to account for 32-40 percent of total deaths in Malawi, with 10 percent attributed to cardiovascular conditions, 10 percent to cancers, two percent to chronic respiratory diseases, one percent to diabetes, and nine percent to other NCDs (WHO 2018), according to the Malawi NCD Alliance.
Furthermore, more than 60 percent of NCD Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) occur before the age of 40 and 62 percent are attributed to conditions not related to common behavioural and metabolic risk factors.
Kumwanje said he is of the view that the integration of HIV and NCDs will improve the capacity building of medical personnel to respond quickly when the needs arise because both HIV and NCDs have many similarities.
“Both HIV and NCDs have a long life span, both requires frequent visit to the hospital and medication, both HIV and NCDs require more financial support. The integration of NCDs in HIV and NCDS is a tool for the development and needs to be support by the Government, Donors, CSO, religious institutions and communities, we ask all the stakeholders to support the call,” he said.
He emphasized the need for Malawi to fully invest in quality health infrastructure for integration of NCDs and HIV.
At present, most health facilities are poorly equipped for diagnostics for NCDs and with weak integration with the HIV cascade of treatment.
“The healthcare system in Malawi is under-equipped to care for patients with NCDs. The Service Provision Assessment (SPA) 2013-2014 reported that less than 20 percent of facilities had equipment and medications required to treat NCDs, and less than 35 percent of staff were trained in care,” explained Kumwanje.
Malawi NCD Alliance is a membership organization that comprises Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance (NCD Alliance) Malawi Chapter and National Association of People Living With HIV/AIDS in Malawi (NAPHAM).
NCD Alliance Malawi Chapter has been working to build advocacy for the integration of Non-Communicable diseases into the cascade of HIV prevention and care, taking into consideration that the resources for NCDs and HIV are shrinking.
In 2022, the NCD Alliance Malawi chapter produced a policy report on the integration of NCDs with HIV prevention and care drawing lessons from the International NCD Alliance’s ‘Our Views, Our Voices’ initiative to promote integration across the global NCD response.
The work, supported by a grant from “The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust”, is critical and comes at a time when the chronic disease burden is growing in Malawi alarmingly, while HIV still remains a major public health challenge.
On the other hand, NAPHAM Executive Director Paul Manyamba disclosed that his association is planning to integrate NCDs in its operations more especially in the ART clinics and this integration will bring the issues related to HIV and NCDs together and improve in service delivery. N
Manyamba added that NAPHAM with Mininstry of Health have managed to achieve the 95: 95:95 target, which is an indication that Malawi is doing fine in the response of HIV and AIDS.
“Therefore the integration of HIV and NCDs will help to improve the service delivery and responses in terms of care, support, treatment and prevention of both NCD and HIV,” he said.
Meanwhile, the NCD Alliance has affirmed its position that NCDs need urgent attention in terms of increased budgetary allocation.
In addition, more efforts need to be done to into integrate NCDs into HIV care and prevention. Unfortunately, there is no specific budget for NCDs in particular for promotion, prevention, and research and achieving a successful health care financing system continues to be a challenge in NCDs compared to considerable investment into HIV.
Africa’s leading Sports and Entertainment company MultiChoice has donated television equipment to state broadcaster, Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) to boost its sports production.
The equipment includes 10 box of lenses, 13 video monitors and 9 cameras.
Makunje (in white) and Kasakula (in black suit) having a symbolic presentation of the equipment
Speaking after presenting the equipment at MBC Chichiri Broadcasting House, Multichoice Malawi Corporate Affairs Manager Zena Makunje said the company realizes the need to work with local content creators and believes the equipment will go a long way in improving the creative industry in the country .
On his part MBC Director General George Kasakula commended Multichoice for giving MBC the equipment saying this will help the station to expand sports coverage and meet the requirements of its audience on both MBC TV and MBC 2 On The Go.
MBC TV was founded in 1999 as Television Malawi, and transmits its signal throughout the country via satellite.
The Senior Resident Magistrate court in Mwanza has acquitted Francis Tezela on a charge of indecent assault.
In court, the wife of the accused alleged that she went to fetch firewood and left the couple’s three-year-old daughter in the hands of her husband. When the wife returned, she found sperms on the little girl’s body and clothes.
She then stripped off the clothes of the accused and claimed that she also found sperms, an allegation denied by the accused. He was later arrested and has been in custody since November as bail was denied.
During prosecution in the Senior Resident Magistrate court, four state witnesses were paraded to prove the allegations of assault.
The first witness was the three-year-old girl who narrated in court that she was ‘touched’ by the accused, but could not answer any further questions put to her.
The second state witness was the victim’s mother and another witness was a medical personnel. The medical personnel examined the girl and during cross-examination, he confirmed to the court that even though she was brought to the hospital the same day, he did not notice the alleged sperms on the child. He further explained that nothing abnormal was detected on the child.
The state also paraded an investigator as a witness and the court ruled that Francis Tezela had a case to answer.
The accused was being represented by counsel from Legal Aid Bureau and during defense, he was his own witness.
After hearing from the accused, the court was of the view that in the absence of a direct witness and a medical expert’s evidence that there were indeed sperms on the child’s body and clothes, the prosecution has failed to prove the indecent assault beyond reasonable doubt.
“We are happy that justice has been served,” commented Senior Legal Aid Advocate Tiwonge Penama who represented Tezela in the matter.
The Mapuyu Second Grade Magistrate court in Lilongwe has convicted and sentenced three men to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour for the offence of robbery.
The court, through state prosecutor Sub Inspector Steve Galleta, heard that on October 31, 2022 the convicts, Austin Josamu, 31, Masawu Banda, 26, Matias Phiri, 29, and three others who are still at large went to Katchuta Farm in the district, where they stole property worth K5,849,250.
Galleta continued to tell the court that the six, tied the watchmen before breaking into the warehouse and stole 15 goats, 105 live chickens, 10 bags each, of rice and maize, 12 bags of fertilizer and other assorted items.
They transported the items in four trips using a hired minibus to Lilongwe City where they sold.
Austin Josamu, hails from Katutula Village, Masawu Banda, hails from Sawala Village, both in Traditional Authority Mkanda, Mchinji, whilst Matias Phiri, hails from Nkachare Village, T/A Wimbe in Kasungu District.
