Unicef donates boat ambulance to Likoma

Unicef has handed over a 15-passenger boat ambulance to Likoma District Health Office to ease mobility challenges to Nkhata Bay District Hospital.

The donation comes at a time patients in Likoma wait for weeks to board Ilala to Nkhata Bay District Hospital or Mzuzu Central Hospital.

In an interview, Minister of Health Khumbize Chiponda said the boat will improve Covid-19 immunisation coverage and can also be used for the administration of general healthcare services.

“The boats will also motivate health workers to work,” she said.

Likoma district health officer Gracewell Mathewe said the boat has come at the right time when they are administering Covid-19 vaccine on Likoma and Chizumulu islands.

Unicef Malawi chief of health Tedla Mezemir Dante said they wanted to enable children and mothers to access health services.

“The boat will improve immunisation in hard-to-reach areas so that Malawi should attain 100 percent vaccine coverage,” he said.

Unicef, with funding from Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunisation, has also bought eight passenger boat ambulances for other three lake shore districts of Nkhata Bay, Rumphi and Mangochi.