08 Mar 2022

The United States of America through the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) and the Maryland Global Initiatives Corporation has donated material and equipment to the government of Botswana. 

Receiving the donation, the Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Edwin Dikoloti expressed his heartfelt gratitude for America’s continuous support to Batswana. He noted the donation included, vehicles, IT equipment, office furniture, laboratory equipment, a bio-repository and Data Management Centre. 

“All these items are valuable to us and will go a long way in assisting us to strengthen and improve our service provision to the public,” he said. 

Dr Dikoloti said the bio-repository and data management centre would assist in overall disease surveillance. 

The data management centre, he said, would be handy during the critical era of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“For this we remain grateful to the US government for your support,” he said 

The minister pointed out that the governments of Botswana and US had a long standing history of cooperation in several sectors across the economy. 

“However, it is worth noting that our partnership in the fight against HIV/AIDS and TB has been a flagship programme in this cooperation,” he said. 

For his part, the US Ambassador to Botswana, Mr Craig Cloud, said his country was committed to ending HIV in Botswana by 2030. 

Ambassador Cloud said the donated was in extremely good condition. 

The equipment, he said was used for the HIV/AIDS Impact Survey V, also known as BAIS V, which had given them the critical information to plan and prepare to complete the last leg of the race to end the HIV epidemic. 

“These investments we made for BAIS V will further strengthen the government of Botswana’s public health services. Different departments and parastatals represented here today will be the main beneficiaries,” he said. 

He explained the vehicles and equipment would go towards building an integrated, comprehensive and efficient health information management and surveillance system to track and control public health threats and hazards,” he said. 

On another point, Ambassador Cloud said the equipment donated would help to sustain the ongoing response efforts against COVID-19.  ends