By Wellington Sibale

Neno, July 18, Mana: Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) operating in Neno district on Thursday donated 20 office chairs worth MK1 million to Lisungwi Police Unit to improve service delivery.

Neno Network Chairperson, Russell Msiska, said the CSOs decided to provide the office chairs after observing that the police could not buy the chairs on their own.

"As CSO networks, one of our core values and obligations is to support government institutions. We felt donating the chairs was the right thing to do after receiving a request from the District Commissioner to help the Police Unit with chairs," Msiska said.

He therefore, pledged that the CSOs will keep on supporting other institutions as long as they have capacity to do so.

Officer-in-Charge for Neno Police Station, Edwin Magalasi, said the donation will help improve the service delivery at the newly established Lisungwi Police Unit.

"The area is far from Zalewa, about 9 km, and about 11 km to Luwani Police Unit. People in this area had difficulties to travel to either Zalewa or Luwani to access police services," added Magalasi and expressed gratitude to the CSOs response after an appeal for assistance was made.

Director of Economic Planning and Development for Neno District Council, Charles Lamoni, commended the Neno CSOs for their gesture saying this was complementary.

“We really appreciate this gesture. CSOs are here to complement government's efforts in advancing its development agenda. The unit had limited resources that it could not afford to buy chairs and other necessities,” he added.

Lamoni also advised people around Lisungwi area to take care of the police unit, as the facility is there to help them address issues of security and further appealed to people in the area to collaborate with the police on law enforcement for a crime free society.

Neno District Council built Lisungwi Police Unit using Community Development Funds.