ENFORCING nutrition on children living with HIV/AIDS will improve their immune system, First Lady Maureen Mwanawasa has said.
Maureen yesterday said the programme to assist children living with HIV would be taken over from Zambia once the team from the Bill Clinton AIDS initiative comes into the country to decide how many infected Zambian children would benefit from the initiative to assist 10,000 children in Africa.
It has been difficult for children to access ARVs even though people with money can access the antiretroviral (ARVS) drugs for children from chemists and pharmacies, but they are expensive.
"If we enforce nutrition in the treatment of children, this will improve their immunity," she said.
And speaking earlier after she received ten tricycles from Zambia's High Commissioner to Tanzania, Joshua Simuyandi's wife, Margaret, Maureen said physically challenged people needed to be assisted with mobility so that they can participate in the development of the country.
She said while she was in Tanzania, she had requested for a transfer of technology so that the tricycles could be manufactured in Zambia.
"Discussions have reached an advanced stage because we want to give users the ability to move from one place to another.
The tricycle is very economical where it can be used as a kantemba," she said.
Maureen said it would be cheaper and production would be easier,and more people would benefit.
And speaking on behalf of the Seek Temple of Tanzania, Margaret said the Zambian community in Tanzania was still thinking of the people suffering back home.
We appreciate the work that the First Lady (Maureen) is doing especially in the rural areas where she sleeps in the rural areas and is sometimes even bitten by mosquitoes," she said.