Ambassador Eastham Inaugurates VCT Center

By Alison Liwanda

Service men and civilians at Mvera Combat Support Unit in Dowa and the surrounding areas have every reason to smile following the donation by the United States Government of a Voluntary Counseling and Testing Center (VCT).

The center, which is equipped with state of the art facilities, will enable people to access VCT services. 
 
Speaking when the U.S. Ambassador to Malawi Alan Eastham inaugurated the center, Senior Deputy Secretary for Defense Ms Trizza Senzani commended the United States Government for supporting Malawi Defense Force’s (MDF) health programs.  

Ms Senzani said the United States Government, through the Naval Health Research Center, has funded the construction of six VCT centers in the entire Malawi Defense Force establishment.  “These centers will greatly motivate our servicemen to be conscious of their health thereby leading to a healthy force; we are very grateful indeed” She said.   
She added that through the VCT centers, the Malawi Defense Force HIV/AIDS program is able conduct HIV and AIDS prevention lessons, provide Antiretroviral Therapy to servicemen and the surrounding civilian community, as well as providing nutritional supplement using the VCT centers assembly points. 

According to the Malawi Military Health Service Director Colonel Dr. Chitsa Banda, the clinic will serve over 50 000 people including servicemen and civilians from the unit and 30 surrounding villages. 

Ambassador Eastham said it was pleasing that the United States was able to contribute to the MDF’s efforts to combat HIV/AIDS through the six VCT centers which he said were worth about $80 000 each. 

He said the facility would greatly reduce the distances servicemen and neighboring civilians cover to access HIV counseling and testing as well as health services.

In addition to the provision of infrastructural facilities to the MDF’s HIV/AIDS program, the USG has embarked on other programmatic efforts.  Through the Department of Defense, the USG has contracted the Population Services International (PSI) to conduct a targeted HIV prevention campaign in cooperation with the MDF Health Unit.
The campaign will focus on ensuring that HIV prevention messages are internalized and practiced by the MDF community. 

The event attracted senior Government and military officials as well as traditional and political leaders.