Ubumbano Voice
By Rashidah Matandika
Financial challenges have crippled the Association of Persons living with Albinism committee in Balaka district as the committee is no longer functioning as it should.
Sheila Nema secretary for the district said the committee is no longer able to meet as they do not have finances to support their meetings as well as following up their members welfare.
Nema said things fell apart when the former chairperson of the executive committee left the chairmanship with no documents for the new committee members to follow up on previous donors or available funds.
She said currently the committee is still using the 2018 statistics on their members yet it is supposed to know any changes that happens on whether the population is growing because of new birth or decreasing due to transfers or death.
Another challenge that the committee is facing is access to skin lotion that is administered by the district hospital as most members reside in areas that are far from the facility centers that the lotion is found. According to Nema, most of their members are poor and having transport to travel to those facilities is hard that most of them choose to stay without the lotion which in turn brings health risks.
When asked on how the hospital is supporting the committee particularly on skin lotion, Mercy Nyirenda, Balaka district hospital spokesperson acknowledged that there is indeed a gap in administering the lotion as only five health facilities including the main hospital do administer it.
However Nyirenda said the hospital has plans to scale up the administration of the lotion to other health facilities to reduce the challenges. She said there is good collaboration among the hospital workers and the APAM district committee that despite the challenge more people get to access the lotion.
On the financial problems, Nema said they are looking for organizations that are willing to support them financially so that they can be able to work again and support each other to avoid the life threatening issues that affects them for example skin cancer that affects them in the absence of the skin lotion plus security issues.
