By Eric Liswaniso, Program Manager, Malaria Partners Zambia
Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia is a $6 million grant to train, equip and deploy 2,500 Community Health Workers in Zambia’s Central and Muchinga provinces. The Rotary-led partnership will train Community Health Workers to test, diagnose, and treat malaria and other diarrheal diseases in 10 of the most affected districts in the 2 provinces. This will bring primary healthcare closer to the community and improve the lives of over 1.3 million Zambians.
The project was officially launched by Zambia’s Minister of Health Dr. Jonas Chanda on 31st March, 2021 during an event at the Protea Towers Hotel in Lusaka. The launch was followed by a start-up workshop which brought together all the implementing partners and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The objective of the 2 days start-up workshop was to:
- Gain a shared understanding of the project goal and project management;
- Understand donors’ expectations, and identify and resolve any compliance issues;
- Share roles and responsibilities for grant management; and
- Share grant management tools and templates.
The workshop adopted a hybrid format to limit the number of participants at the venue in compliance with Covid-19 guidelines with other delegates joining remotely via Zoom. The meeting resolved to train an initial 1,300 CHWs this year starting on 3rd May, 2021 with the other 1,200 to be trained in 2022. The program will also support the training of 60 facilitators starting on April 26th.
The Rotary Foundation, World Vision USA, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have each contributed $2 million to the program.