Health authorities say journalists have a critical role to play if the country is to win the fight against the ongoing pandemics rocking the nation. 

Doŵa District Hospital Environmental Health Officer Thokozani Nsona said this on Thursday in the district during a day-long training involving the media on cholera and Covid-19 pandemics organised by Moravian Humanitarian and Development Services (MoHDevS).

According to Nsona, despite Doŵa registering very few cholera cases, mass awareness remains critical in ensuring that the pandemic is dealt with.

She said: “Doŵa as a district, we are registering very few cases, and for a number of weeks, right now, we haven’t registered any case so I can confidently say that we have managed to fight this cholera epidemic.

“We wanted to involve the media so that they could help the Ministry of Health to spread the right information to the people of Doŵa.”

MoHDevS Project Coordinator Belinda Mzembe said the institution organised the training in order to equip the media practitioners with scientifically proven information on cholera and Covid-19 pandemics.

“Media practitioners play a crucial role in giving out information, and the information that people get from accredited media houses people believe it more than maybe whatever the other information they can get from somewhere,” she said.

One of the trained journalists, Pemphero Phiri of Chisomo Community Radio, said the knowledge tapped from the training will professionally assist him in understanding better issues that he is relaying to the public.

“We are the servants of people. If society is affected, we are also affected, so coming up with this training has helped us since we will continue spreading evidence-based information,” said Phiri.

MoHDevS, which is a developmental service arm of the Moravian Church in Malaŵi, is implementing an ending cholera campaign project alongside the Doŵa District Health Office.

In early February this year, the government unveiled the national Tithetse kolera (End Cholera) campaign to curb the outbreak affecting the country.