By Vincent Gunde
A local Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)- Evangelical Lutheran Development Service ( ELDS), has partnered with Self Help Africa ( SHA) to implement Sanitation, and Hygiene interventions under Charity Water project in Dowa district.
Self Help Africa (SHA) has been championing the Dowa – Integrated Water, Sanitation and Hygiene ( DIWASH ) project which started in 2019 to 2025 and the project is continuing to reach many areas of the district for the communities to access quality water through borehole drillings and rehabilitations.
As a partner to the Dowa District Council, SHA has employed Water Monitoring Assistants ( WMA) to beef up human capacity in the District Water Development Office to help monitoring functionality of water points in the district.
ELDS’s District Project Coordinator Pius Khozi, said the organization started operating in Malawi in 1989 as a developmental arm of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi.
Khozi said the organization started as a program to assist Mozambican refugees and later, the program expanded to Malawian hosts communities.
He said after refugees repatriation, the program continued working with disaster- prone communities to reduce poverty in the affected districts.
The coordinator said in 2005, the Program transitioned to ELDS becoming an autonomous Malawian church based organization.
He said the Evangelical Lutheran Development Service is mandated by Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi to serve the poor and vulnerable communities in holistic and inclusive manner.
Khozi said the organization works with a vision of a just and peaceful Malawi where everyone attains quality life and its mission is compelled by the love of Christ.
” We promote sustainable development among vulnerable communities in Malawi,” he said.
He said ELDS program is in the thematic priority areas of Sustainable livelihoods Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, WASH prevention in communities, health services, human rights, gender advocacy, community based psychosocial support, disability mainstreaming, early childhood development, and other cross cutting issues.
Currently, Evangelical Lutheran Development Service ( ELDS) is operating in 12 districts of the country, two districts in the northern region, six in the central region and four in the southern region.
In her remarks, Dowa District Council’s Water Development Officer Fanny Muula, welcomed ELDS joining a team of water partners in the district urging all partners to support its interventions for the program to be successful in the district.
