By Brian Wasili
Mwanza, February 27, Mana: Mwanza District Hospital nurses on Wednesday planted assorted species of trees around the hospital premises as Malawi is striving to restore hectares of degraded land and forests in the 2024/2025 forestry season.
Guest of honour, Senior Nursing and Midwifery Officer, Gloria Thokozani Chirombo told Malawi News Agency that the nurses took the time to plant trees, realising that most diseases are related to effects of climate change ignited by depletion of natural resources such as forests.
She further observed that when natural disasters such as cyclone-induced floods, dry spells and outbreaks of waterborne diseases happen, communities seek medical services from the hospital hence the need for the nurses to take part in addressing the source of the problem.
“As a district hospital, we always receive serious cases from health centres as such, we are overwhelmed with such incidences so much that we cannot stay idle but rather join stakeholders to mitigate the cause," said Chirombo.
She therefore commended fellow nurses for sparing time, taking off their normal schedule to participate in the tree planting and urged other stakeholders in the district to emulate what the nurses did.
National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi (NONM) Mwanza chapter chairperson, Patrick Ganizani described the tree planting as a response government's call to all stakeholders to plant trees so that they can restore degraded land-depleted forests.
“We started planting trees last year in January after the exercise was introduced in the health sector by NONM. We expect to roll out to all three health centres by March 31," said Ganizani.
200 seedlings which include indigenous and tangerines were donated by NONM, 170 of which were planted at the event and the rest will be distributed to the health facilities in the district.
NONM introduced planting exercise in the health sector in December 2024 as part of their efforts to address the effects of climate change and promote environmental conservation.
Vice President, Michael Usi launched the 2024/2025 National Forestry Season in Chitipa on December 17, 20254 under the theme; Restore Forests and Land to Secure Food.
Malawi intends to restore 22,420 hectares of degraded land and depleted forests by planting 40,130,719 trees across the country.
