Malawi President, Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, has expressed appreciation towards a gesture by multinational construction and civil engineering firm, Khato Civils following the latter’s K100 million donation towards Cyclone Freddy victims.
Speaking on Wednesday during a send-off funeral service for victims in Chilobwe Township, the Malawi President noted that all forms of help are coming from across the globe.
“I received a call last night from Khato Civils who have committed 1 million Rands to help in taking care of the displaced in camp shelters. This is a commendable gesture and signifies that our call for international support is being heeded to,” said Chakwera.
However, Malawi Gazette has established that Khato Civils has upped the donation to K100 million.
An official statement issued on Wednesday by the company’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mongezi Mnyani, says Khato Civils together with its sister company, South Zambezi Engineering Services, have taken heed of president Chakwera’s plea to both local and international communities to join in efforts to relieve victims of the Cyclone Freddy through supportive aid.
“The Khato Civils and South Zambezi Joint Venture is deeply saddened for the loss of lives, injuries, and destruction to property to all disaster victims. As a responsible and a caring company, we sympathize with the many families who have lost their loved ones in this disaster, and we hope that the storm will subside so that recovery and restoration efforts can proceed immediately”, reads the statement in part.
According to Khato Civils Country Director for Malawi, Mr. Ashan Phiri, the statement has been released in order to encourage the donation to directly reach the victims and compel many others to do the same.
“We have immediately transferred One Hundred Million Kwacha to the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) which is coordinating relief response on behalf of the State. We urge that this support goes directly to the over 10,000 people that have been displaced by the disaster. We understand that these people are currently living in over 50 emergency camps that the Government through DoDMA has set up. We further urge many other stakeholders both local and international to join the effort,” Phiri said in an interview with this publication.
Meanwhile Red Cross Society, an international relief organization is on the ground complementing government’s efforts in recovering impacted persons and providing relief support.
Upon his return for United Nations Conference of Least Developed Countries which took place in Doha, Qatar, president Chakwera called upon both local and international communities to support government’s efforts in servicing the affected population.
Hours after declaring State of Disaster throughout the affected districts, the Malawi leader ordered deployment of Malawi Defense Force and Malawi Police Service to the disaster areas for rescue and security missions. Meanwhile, these two institutions have rescued hundreds of people who were trapped in the disaster chaos to safe zones where they are being camped and looked after.