NICO Holdings PLC handed over K10 million to Malawi Liverpool Liverpool Wellcome Clinical Research Programme (MLW) to contribute towards personal protective equipment for health workers during the COVID pandemic.
During the handover meeting, MLW Director Professor Stephen Gordon said having adequate equipment will keep health workers safe and at work. He also thanked NICO Holdings PLC for the donation.
“MLW greatly appreciates the support from NICO Group. From early 2020 to date, the COVID pandemic has threatened our brave health system. Hospital services face heavy burdens of infectious and non-infectious diseases. COVID increases both – it is an infection that particularly attacks patients with diabetes and high blood pressure. It is with this background that we, as MLW, have looked for partners to help support the health services.
With major support from Wellcome, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and other institutions, we have made contributions to the fight against COVID. Most notably, we partnered with QECH to provide an oxygen plant that supplies the much-needed oxygen to COVID patients and supports non-COVID patients in surgery or other times of need. Donations of personal protective equipment have also been ongoing to various hospitals and health centres in Blantyre, Chikwawa, and Zomba through our own capacity and through initiatives such as the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine’s #BumpitForward campaign. Now the urgent need is for everyone in Malawi to be vaccinated. Wave 4 has arrived in Europe and will surely seek out those that are not vaccinated. The government of Malawi has partnered with donors to provide vaccines and we must protect ourselves, our families, and our health services by taking advantage of this provision,” said Professor Gordon.
NICO Pensions General Manager Gerald Chima said his organisation was happy to be associated with MLW, and that it was important to collectively work towards fighting COVID.
“NICO decided to partner with MLW because we have a strong business relationship with MLW across the NICO Group and that we believe in your cause and contributions to the improvement in the health sector – an area that NICO is interested in as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility,” said Chima.
