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| National |
| Nac pumps K3m into Plan activities |
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by
Francis Tayanjah-Phiri, 05 October 2004
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08:48:40
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National Aids Commission (Nac) on Thursday injected almost K3 million into three community-based organisations from Mzimba and Mzuzu, through the HIV/Aids fighters’ umbrella body in northern Malawi, Plan Malawi.
“Such grants would help us in scaling-up the response to HIV/Aids pandemic in the Assemblies. I am therefore compelled to also urge the assemblies to sensitise communities so that many community based organisations (CBOs) come up to benefit. I gather there are funds for the HIV/Aids activities available as long as the CBOs come up with realistic proposals addressing the real issues in the communities,” said Mzuzu’s Jombo ward councillor Goodwin Mvula.
Mzimba Aids committee received K459,528, Mzimba District Health Office got K1,554,130, Chibabvi based Youth Against Aids Pandemic were granted K559,775 while Mzuzu and District Volleyball League got K152,500.
Mvula, who represented Mzuzu mayor Egbert Chibambo, stressed it was imperative that the recipients use the funds for intended purposes and not abuse them for personal gain.
He said: “I challenge the grant recipient organisations to use the grants prudently as specified in your project documents. Let me also urge you to strive for quality service delivery.”
The Nac grants were channelled through Plan Malawi as an umbrella organisation coordinating Aids activities in the Mmbelwa District Assembly, Mzuzu City and Kasungu.
Plan Malawi Program Unit Manager in Mzuzu Amos Dzinza said as an umbrella body, his organisation was responsible for building the capacity of both district assemblies and CBOs, so that they manage funds for the projects.
“Just like we have for this three CBOs, we train recipients of grants before receiving the funds. We advise them to use the funds for intended purposes, promote transparency and accountability so that activities will benefit the intended beneficiaries,” he said.
Dzinza said it was expected that after such training and capacity building, the Assemblies would be facilitating activities related to NAC funds in future that would also comply with the decentralisation requirement.
Dzinza, and Plan’s Capacity Building Specialist (HIV/Aids) Fletcher Nuka, said Plan had a vision to promote community building organisations into big organisations, just like it has happened with the Mzimba based Tovwirane HIV/Aids organisation.
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