MPs from UK, Germany chart ways to end malaria by 2030
A woman with her baby sleeping on a bed covered with an anti-malarial mosquito net. PHOTO | FILE
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The MPs will later advise their governments to increase resources to fight malaria.
Dar es Salaam. The All-Parties Parliamentary Group on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) from the United Kingdom and Germany who are currently visiting Tanzania held discussions with their Tanzanian counterparts earlier this week on how to end malaria by 2030.
The tour is hosted by the Tanzania Parliament Against Malaria (Tapama) and NTDs.
The delegation of parliamentarians also met the Kilimanjaro regional commissioner, Ms Anna Mghwira, and discussed the challenges and efforts aimed at ending malaria and NTD in the region.
Ms Mghwira commended the parliamentarians from the UK and Germany for their support in ending the deadly malaria disease and NTDs in the country.
During the tour in the region, two parliamentarians from the UK and ‘Hellen Keller and Sight Savers’ - representatives of the non-governmental organisations in Tanzania - visited Karume Health Centre in Rombo District.
While at the health centre, the parliamentarians witnessed treatment of people with eye problems like trachoma. Initially, medical experts were visiting people in their home places to provide such treatment.
The project is being implemented jointly by the ministries of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, the Regional Administration and Local Government, Kilimanjaro Center for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO). It is financed by the UK government through the Commonwealth fund. Tapama secretary general Raphael Chegeni said the visit will enhance awareness of the UK legislators who then will advise their government through the Department for International Development (DfID) to increase resources and cooperation in the programme aimed at fighting malaria through the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) and the NTDs. It targets to empower these institutions in the programme geared at ending malaria in Tanzania.
Tapama executive director Dr Hermengild Mayunga said the tour is the unique opportunity for APPG legislators to learn the challenges that the Tanzania government face in the efforts aimed at ending malaria and NTDs.
The parliamentarians are today expected to meet the Speaker of the National Assembly, Job Ndugai.
The delegation will also meet the health minister and the NMCP management in Dodoma today to discuss challenges that the ministry face in combatting the malaria and NTDs. It will be an opportunity to hear on what the UK government and its people can do through the DfID to support programme.
The parliamentarians will visit various projects on malaria and NTD implemented in the country funded by the government through the DFID and the Global Fund.
