The program's country director Havard Hovdhaugen disclosed this in Lilongwe during a high-level Faith Leaders Conference where faith leaders from different denominations deliberated on the country’s cholera situation and how they can help complement government’s efforts to contain the outbreak.

“Cholera has been around in Malawi for more than a year, the worst outbreak in a decade and we believe it is possible to completely deal with the situation through collaboration and provision of necessary financial and technical support, hence our assistance to mainly focus on three key crucial areas of cholera response namely: risk communication, research and access to clean water,” he said.

Deputy minister of health Halima Daudi hailed various organisations that are supporting the Tithetse Cholera campaign, saying the response has yielded enormous results as witnessed by the downward spiral in cholera cases across the 29 health districts in Malawi.

“Faith leaders play a very important role in this country. They meet a lot of people in their course of work, and we would like to engage them in the cholera response to help disqualify disinformation and misinformation around the cholera outbreak,” she added.

On her part Secretary General for the Malawi Assemblies of God and chairperson for Women in Faith under the Public Affairs Committee (PAC) Rev. Dr Matilda Matabwa said they will help government promote hygienic practices in churches, mosques and households to contain the further spread of cholera in the country.

The faith leaders convened the conference with financial support from NCA/DCA, DanChurchAid Malawi country programme and UNICEF, and it attracted participation from faith leaders, government officials and development partners.

(By Franklin Mtambalika)