By Prisca Promise Mashushu

Chirunga alumni group from the University of Malawi has donated wheelchairs worth K2 million as part of Christmas and Boxing Day celebrations at Kamuzu Central Hospital on Thursday.

The Director of Quality Assurance Services in the Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture, also a representative of the Alumni group, Dr Darwin Pangani, said one of their colleagues in the University of Malawi, also a former student, put up a bid for disposal of the wheelchair to the group to be donated to any hospital in the country.

Pangani said this triggered an inclination to the idea of making use of such an item in a meaningful sense and through value addition.

“Our engagement today here at Kamuzu Central Hospital  (KCH) at this function aims to deliver 5 new Wheelchairs as part of our goodwill donation to an important health facility not only in Lilongwe City but for the whole country  Malawi.

“We started with modest donations and this became a bigger ambition which has led to mobilizing close to K2 million which has been used to buy four wheelchairs for adults and one wheelchair for a child, from the local medical equipment supply,” said Pangani.

However, he expressed gratitude to his fellow alumni for the kind donations from Chirunga friends and colleagues some of which stay and work outside the country, US and UK.

“We are grateful for the guidance from the Health Financing section of MoH on following the right protocols to make this donation.

“All in all we are also grateful to be part of the start of this partnership with KCH and MoH in particular.  Most of us value KCH as a facility which has been used as a referral for most of our health problems,” he said.

The Director General at Kamuzu Central Hospital Dr Knock Ludzu expressed gratitude for the coming of the Chizungu alumni ground as the wheelchairs will play a crucial role in the easy movement of the patients from one place to another within the hospital.

“Our goal is to provide quality tertiary healthy services in the central region and beyond, but we have limited resources which is also a challenge to fulfil our core values and goals.

“We would love if other well wishes would intervene and provide us with more wheelchairs since the hospital is very large and requires more availability of resources;” he explained

He has however encouraged other well wishes to donate essential materials at the hospital in order to help patients in different departments of the hospital.