Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Malawi Celebrates 45th Anniversary

Her Excellency Hawa Ndilowe, Ambassador of Malawi to the USA, hosted a wonderful celebration last evening in Washington, DC to commemorate Malawi's "National Day". Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Mary Jo Wills, Acting Chief Executive of the Millennium Challenge Corporation Rodney Brent, and "Miss Malawi" Joyce Mphande who will represent Malawi in the Miss World competition joined some 300+ guests including representatives of embassies, NGOs, and corporations active in Africa. Ambassador Ndilowe, a member of IEF's Board of Directors, spoke about the significant progress being made in recent years, especially Malawi's 8% growth rate in GDP last year. "Investments in agriculture, health and education are moving Malawians out of poverty to prosperity". IEF congratulates Malawi on its 45th anniversary since independence noting that we have helped build Malawi's eye care services for 34 of those 45 years. Our recent blog posting noted that our colleague Dr. Moses Chirambo, a distinguished Malawian ophthalmologist, was elected to Parliament in May and appointed Minister of Health for Malawi.

Photo: IEF President Victoria Sheffield with Her Excellency Hawa Ndilowe