MC-ZAMBIA COLLABORATES WITH THE AIDS HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION IN THE FIGHT AGAINST THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
NEW YORK, NY, July 13, 2020 – MC-Zambia, the local affiliate organization of New York-based MCW (Miracle Corners of the World), has collaborated with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) to reduce the spread of the coronavirus in Chanyanya, a rural village in Zambia. The collaboration between MC-Zambia and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation began in 2019 with a project that provided free, reusable sanitary pads to schoolgirls in the village of Chikupi, located in Kafue District in Zambia.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought the two organizations together once again, this time to reduce the spread of the virus in over 20 districts in Zambia. To help contain the spread of coronavirus, the government has commissioned measures including a lockdown, social distancing, and prohibiting gatherings of more than 50 people. Wearing a mask in public has become mandatory, and the government has made it law. Not all households can afford masks and the economic feasibility of buying one for each member of a household that is already facing financial hardship has pushed people into extreme poverty. Community members who are unable to access masks are further pushed to the outskirts of society by not being able to participate in the economy. In addition, those who cannot afford masks are also at higher risk for contracting the virus.
MC-Zambia and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation have produced more than 3,000 masks for those most in need. By leveraging MC-Zambia’s Tailoring Program, tailors have been mobilized to produce masks to help reduce the spread of the virus in Zambia. The masks were distributed at one of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation clinics in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation funded the production of masks while MC-Zambia provided the skills of their tailors.
