15 September 2023

RapidPro boosts Malawi’s polio response

Ever since Malawi declared an outbreak of polio in February 2022, health workers have been the front and centre of the response to the outbreak. To ensure the health workers have the necessary tools to mount a swift and effective response against the disease, UNICEF supported the Ministry of Health to rollout of R...
10 August 2023

Polio vaccination teams share sanitation tips

When a vaccination team stopped by Edna Matia’s homestead in Savala Village along the eastern bank of the Shire River in Chikwawa district, she released her bewilderment. “I’m glad my two children have received the polio vaccine because the government cannot approve something that harms its citizens. But vaccines...
09 August 2023

Village chief backs polio vaccination

Group Village Head Mafunga of Chikwawa District, southern Malawi, was listening to the radio when a door-to-door vaccination team briefed him that only one child had not been immunised against polio. The no-easy feat countered the community leader’s goal for every child in the village to be vaccinated. "The radio ...
09 August 2023

Polio shots liberate Grivin’s smile

School days are happy moments for Grivin Donnex, a Standard Four boy at Olore primary school in Chikwawa district, southern Malawi. His smile flashes the brightest during social studies classes. “I love social studies because I want to become a good teacher like Mr. Anthony, our deputy headteacher,” he says, smili...
09 August 2023

Religious Leaders Support Polio Vaccination

When the Zomba District Health Office airlifted 500 polio vaccine doses in July, Phillip Katombosola could not wait for the drone to land at Magomero health centre. The teacher, who sits on Magomero Catholic parish's church committee, considers the vaccine a reliable tool to prevent the global resurgence of wild p...
01 August 2023

Drones fly to stop polio in Malawi

As early as 7 am, Bernard Ndawala was seen conducting routine checks on a drone at Matawale Hospital in Zomba, Malawi’s old capital city. A few nods confirmed it was ready to take to the sky and deliver polio vaccine to Magomero health centre. The rural destination is only reached via a battered earth road made wo...
10 January 2023

Polio Outbreak in Malawi

Since the first Wild Polio Virus (WPV) case was reported in February 2022, there have been no new cases. The Government of Malawi with support from partners has carried out three of the planned four rounds of national vaccination campaigns against wild poliovirus Type-1. The target for all four rounds of vaccines ...
18 September 2022

Communities upbeat in the fight against polio

When 24-year-old Alinafe Mwale Phiri from Kachitsa Village in Kasungu heard about the third polio vaccination campaign, she could not wait for health workers to reach her village to have her 13-month-old son Blessings vaccinated. “When I heard about the campaign on the radio, I told my husband, and we agreed that...
14 September 2022

Kasungu polio survivor regrets vaccine ignorance

Precious Nkhanizimatha Chunga, 44 years old, was born at Chilowamatambe village in Kasungu. He’s life changed completely in 1982 when he contracted polio at six-years-old. It all started when all his limbs suddenly felt paralysed. He believes that with no effective health awareness campaigns, coupled by the fact t...
14 September 2022

Lydia's optimistic rise from polio misfortune

Lydia Kadzidye is seated on a mat outside her house in Kasungu district, waiting for visitors to stop by her home. The 44 year-old casts a figure of someone who is always optimistic about life. Even an 'ambush' with the camera crew we planned at her place at Kaponda Village, Traditional Authority Mwase in Kasungu ...
01 August 2022

Humanitarian Situation Report - 31 July 2022

Cholera cases continue to rise in 10 districts in the southern region with 1,003 cases registered as of 31 July 2022.  416,982 people reached with hygiene promotion, positive behaviour messages on handwashing, water usage, and proper use of latrines in UNICEF targeted districts. 8,969 people have gained access to ...
30 June 2022

Humanitarian Situation Report - May to June 2022

Cholera cases continue to increase rapidly in the southern region districts (Balaka, Blantyre, Chikwawa, Machinga, Mulanje and Neno) and Lilongwe in the central Vaccinations for 3rd dose of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) and 2nd dose of Oral Cholera Vaccine proposed for July  1, 473 664 people are fully immunized from C...