In August 2022, the Directorate of Health Services and Social Welfare (DHSS) for Nkhata Bay firstly confirmed a Cholera outbreak around Tukombo Trading Centre in the area of Traditional Authority (T/A) Zilakoma in the district.
By the 2oth September, over 660 cases were reported in various parts of the district with at least 17 deaths within the period.
Health authorities cited issues of poor sanitation practices and the use of untreated water from unreliable sources as the causes of outbreak. As such, the ministry of Health and Population called for community awareness raising campaigns in order to contain the disease.
Thus, it is against this background that YONECO has embarked on awareness raising campaigns in various parts of the districts in a quest to contribute towards ending the outbreak. In this undertaking, YONECO is a using door-to-door approach and a total of 126 community members (90 females and 36 males) have been reached with awareness message.
The key messages which YONECO has been sharing community members is on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) whereby people in the targeted areas are being advised to; wash hands before eating, before preparing food, after using the toilet, after changing baby diapers, boil or treat with chlorine drinking water among other things.
