Zantel Tanzania has won an award for private sector excellence in the fight against Malaria.The award given by the US-based John Hopkins University in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, aimed to acknowledge private sector’s role in the fight against the deadly disease.
The Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Investment and Empowerment, Dr Mary Nagu, commended the company for its effort and called other firms to emulate Zanztel’s spirit.
The event was also attended by Deputy Minister for Health and Social welfare, Dr Seif Rashid, who said the fight against Malaria was a shared responsibility and should not be left to government alone.
Zantel Senior Manager Marketing Communication, Ms Awaichi Mawalla, who also won an individual award as a champion against Malaria fight, said Zantel decided to take action against the disease because wellbeing of their staff and customers was Zantel’s number one priority.
Zantel announced their partnership with United Against Malaria through Malaria Safe Programme aimed to promote awareness on prevention and treatment of Malaria. The partnership focuses on four pillars of Malaria Safety, which are Education, Protection, Visibility and Advocacy.
Zantel is also committed to advocacy for Malaria Safe initiative by providing different platforms to ensure visibility of Malaria messages.
“We are proud to win this award, which acknowledges our role to help end Malaria related deaths in Tanzania by using our core capacity as a telecom company to get the message out,” said Sajid Khan, Zantel Chief Commercial Officer.
Malaria is a major public health problem in Tanzania with annual deaths estimated at 60,000, with 80 per cent of these deaths among children under five years of age.
About 14 to 18 million clinical malaria cases are reported annually by public health services and more than 40 per cent of all outpatient visits are attributed to malaria.
Source: Daily News, reported from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
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