President Lazarus Chakwera and his vice Saulos Chilima yesterday led Malawians in celebrating Christmas when they separately cheered up patients at Mangochi District Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) in Blantyre, respectively.
Accompanied by their wives—Monica Chakwera and Mary Chilima—the two leaders also presented assorted Christmas gifts to hundreds of patients they jollied up.
The First Couple visited the maternity ward, where they were told on average 40 children are born every day, before seeing patients in the general ward.
Speaking to the media later, the President urged Malawians to celebrate the festive season responsibly and avoid relaxation of preventive measures as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to bite scores of citizens in the country.
At QECH, Chilima’s family cheered up children in two paediatric wards (special care and oncology) before visiting mothers at Gogo Chatinkha Ward (maternity wing).
Clad in Father Christmas attire with spread-out mock white beards and a sack of candy, the Chilimas charmed the sick children while giving out various Christmas gifts to all patients in the pediatric and maternity wards.
The Second Couple also took time to visit the maternity wing’s grieving room to console mothers who had just lost their newborns.
Speaking after the visit, Chilima reminded Malawians to specially remember during the festive season fellow citizens suffering from different ailments in hospitals across the country.
“This period families are supposed to spend time together but our fellow citizens are not feeling well and are in hospitals. So the ideal situation is to reach out to them, cheer them up and share the little that we have,” said Chilima.
The Vice-President, whose visit took exactly 32 minutes, also extended the message of goodwill to the patients and wished each one of them a quick recovery.
While applauding hospital management for the best health care provision to patients, Chilima said he was also delighted with the standard of the 60-bed special ward for Covid-19 which currently has 10 patients.
QECH director Samson Mndolo applauded the Second Couple for cheering up the patients and giving with them assorted Christmas gifts.
He said the gifts would make a significant impact on the lives of the patients and their guardians who could not join their families in celebrating the festive season.
