16 Nov 2022

 The Gaborone Rotary Club and Pan African Vivax and Ovale Network from Ghana have donated eight malaria microscopes worth P2 million to the Ministry of Health.

When receiving the devices, Senior Consultant Maternal at the ministry Dr Morrison Sinvula thanked the Rotary Club for the donation which he said  would easily help detect malaria  and save lives.

He also said it was a pleasure for the Pan African Vivax and Ovale Network (PAVON) as another key partner in the drive towards malaria elimination. “This year in May, PAVON conducted Malaria Microscopy training in Gaborone and the training has proved to be very effective,’’ he said.

The training, he said, helped some of the laboratory scientists and technicians to attain a Level 1 External Competency Accreditation for Malaria Microscopy (ECAMM) in August, which is a level recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO) for one to be a competent malaria microscopists and trainer.

He also said they were among eight Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries targeting to eliminate malaria by 2025. “We are actually the closest to eliminating the disease, looking at our population, number of cases and deaths,” he said. He also thanked the laboratory sector which was one of the most critical players in the malaria elimination strategy.

For his part, the president of the Rotary Club in Botswana, Mr Bill McClean said for more than 110 years, Rotary’s people of action have used their passion, energy, and intelligence to act on sustainable projects.

He said they had joined forces with the Rotary Club of Phoenix 100 and Global Health Institute (the non-profit division of Merck), to supply eight microscopes to the National Health Laboratories for the detection of the malaria parasite and thus the early treatment of the disease.

“This demonstrates the commitment from Rotary International, and the clubs around the world, to supporting Botswana in the eradication of this terrible disease which has afflicted our communities for generations,” he said.

Also, he said, malaria and polio eradication had been an important part of the Rotary Club of Gaborone’s focus for the past 40 years. About their contribution in Botswana, he said their club was one of the first organisations to promote the deployment of Long life Insecticide Treated Mosquito Nets (LLINS), with donations of these nets in endemic areas such as Gweta, Shorobe, Mababe, Khwai and Sankoyo villages. These donations, of several hundred nets, were made by the Rotary Club of Gaborone in 2010 and 2011, before the Ministry of Health were able to import and sustain the roll out of these nets in later years.

On behalf of the Program Manager of PAVON, Ms Janet Tormeti said they had a relationship with the National Malaria Program of Botswana. She said following in-house consultation and discussion with the Rotary Club International through James Mulry of the Merck Global Health Institute, the Rotary Club International offered to donate eight microscopes to the NHL to enhance their diagnostic capabilities.

This collaboration has been sustained in the training of local graduate students as part of the overall capacity building initiatives for the country. At the founding of PAVON in 2019, she said their focus has been to train young African graduates in molecular skills for epidemiological preparedness in malaria diagnostics, in collaboration with National Malaria Programs in Africa. ENDS