The Ministry of Health (MoH), yesterday, donated ten vehicles to health affiliated Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) with the aim of increasing effectiveness of malaria control programmes countrywide.

During a function at the offices of the Malaria Unit to hand over the vehicles worth Rwf35 million each, the Coordinator of Maternal and Child Health in MoH, Dr. Fidele Ngabo, noted that the vehicles were provided through the Global Fund initiative.

"By donating these vehicles to NGOs, we believe that more sensitisation campaigns will be carried out, especially at community level to further curb malaria infection,” Ngabo explained.

"We also plan to equip them with mobile equipment such as televisions and radios that will facilitate the sensitisation drives”.

Ngabo highlighted that over the years, malaria was among the top three killer diseases of children under five, adding that as a result of various interventions like distribution of bed nets, the disease, today, ranks fourth.

Emma Marie Bugingo, the Executive Secretary of Profemme Twese Hamwe, one of the organisations that benefited from the donation, noted that the vehicles would ease their work.

"We have been involved in malaria control programmes for long and each NGO has a specific area of intervention. This initiative will, therefore, enable us to do our work even better, since we believe that efforts to promote behavioral change through sensitisation are never in vain,” Bugingo said.

Other beneficiaries include Urunana Development Programme, Imbuto Foundation, Rwanda Development Organisation, World Vision and Caritas International, among others.

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