Sports Council donates Covid-19 safety kits to sports journalists

Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) has donated Covid-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) to Northern Region-based sports journalists.

The equipment includes face masks, hand sanitisers and anti-bacteria liquid hand soap.

This comes after MNCS donated K7 million worth of safety kits to Northern Region athletes and associations.

In an interview on Monday, regional sports development officer for North Georgina Msowoya said journalists, who are important stakeholders, have not been spared from the pandemic.

“We recognise the role sports reporters play in the promotion of sports. Of course, we could not reach out to many, but the little we have provided will make a difference,” she said.

Over 10 journalists from various media houses got the equipment.

One of the recipients, Bernard Mhone of Times Group, appealed to other organisations to emulate the gesture.

He said: “The country continues to witness a sharp increase in the Covid-19 cases. It is a fact that journalists are frontline workers in the course of their work.

“However, most of the journalists are freelancers and cannot afford to buy Covid-19 preventive kits. We are urging other organisations to follow what the MNCS has done so that journalists are also protected.”

In an earlier interview, Sports Writers Association of Malawi (Swam) president Mphatso Malidadi appealed to stakeholders to consider assisting sports journalists with PPE as they are vulnerable in the course of discharging their duties.

“We talk of resuming football, but there is one thing that stakeholders are forgetting, which is the role of the media and how they will be protected during the matches,” he said.