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Lilongwe (Malawi) (AFP)
A new crowdfunding campaign in Malawi raised $ 100,000 in one week and helped provide basic equipment and medicine to public hospitals to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
A Facebook appeal last week has already helped secure oxygen cylinders and essential medicines at the four main public hospitals in the poor aid-dependent southern African country, the man in charge said. in the countryside.
Malawi has recorded 17,365 coronavirus cases and 445 deaths out of a population of 18.6 million.
“A friend was hospitalized for Covid-19. Then he posted an SOS call on social media asking for help because the hospital did not have an oxygen pressure regulator,” French Malawian Stanley said Kenani, who is overseeing the project.
“Although friends gathered the money and bought him one, he still lost his life.
“I wondered if friends on social media could get together and contribute some money for medical supplies and equipment that could save lives,” Kenani said.
Malawians have responded enthusiastically, with students donating their pocket money to poor Malawians living in the countryside.
Andrew Banda, a resident of Blantyre, who donated $ 1, said he has seen the new coronavirus affect a lot of people around him.
“A few of my friends have died and even more have been infected and it made me want to do something about this pandemic,” he said.
“I don’t have much but I believe the little I contributed will help save a life,” said Banda.
Malawi was already one of the poorest countries in the world when the pandemic hit. About half of its inhabitants live below the poverty line.
Health Secretary Charles Mwansambo praised the crowdfunding, saying “the government alone cannot meet the health needs of Malawians, let alone Covid-19”.
Unlike the rest of the continent, daily life has not been affected in Malawi since the High Court banned the government from confining citizens to limit the spread of Covid-19, saying the poor country could not afford a foreclosure because people had to venture out to make money.
President Lazarus Chakwera implemented Malawi’s first lockdown on Sunday, closing schools and imposing a curfew as infections began to rise.
More than 50% of the total Covid-19 infections in the country have been detected this month, with a record 1316 new cases announced on Friday.
© 2021 AFP
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