Nkhata Bay-based NGO encourages communities to mobilise resources for long-term sustainability

Malawi: Temwa Malawi's health and WASH programmes, whose main goal is to reduce disease prevalence in the communities in which they work, are encouraging communities to mobilise resources on their own as a means of sustaining themselves if the project ends.

A healthy community means that people will be able to participate in all developmental activities, such as education, farming, and business, among others, and thus will be encouraged to develop their communities.

In an interview with AfricaBrief, Projects Officer Emmanuel Njikho explained that the health and WASH programmes they are implementing are designed to promote healthy living by encouraging community members to adopt healthy living standards such as avoiding practices that could lead to disease and sickness.

They also assist health centres in various catchment areas with various initiatives aimed at improving health service delivery to community members.

"We provide material support to community members to assist them in addressing the health and WASH challenges that they face," he explained.

Currently, the health projects being implemented are the PITC project (an HIV/AIDS project), the Covid-19 response project, and the general public health response, while the WASH programme has the UCHANDA project, which is currently being implemented in 5 communities, he added.

These projects are being carried out in all five T/As in Nkhatabay North.

Community members are expected to be at the forefront of planning, mobilising resources, and implementing projects in order to own and sustain them.

Following Temwa's community demand-driven approach, the communities they work with have always been at the helm of every project they undertake.

As an organisation, they hope to see self-sufficient communities that can address the health and WASH challenges that they face on a daily basis.

Temwa Malawi currently plans to expand its health and WASH projects to other hard-to-reach communities outside of Nkhatabay north.