Peter Mutharika launches 2019 Poppy Appeal Week
President Peter Mutharika Thursday inaugurated this year’s Poppy Appeal Week during an event held at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe.
The Poppy Appeal Week is characterised by the selling and wearing of a remembrance poppy, an artificial flower that has been used since 1921 to commemorate military personnel who died in the First and Second World Wars.
Mutharika bought the first poppy of this year’s commemorations at K1 million.
He urged Malawians to buy more poppies during the week, saying proceeds from the sales would go towards helping living heroes of the wars.
“As we buy and wear the poppy, let us remember that other people died for the freedom we are enjoying today,” Mutharika said, adding that there is no greater sacrifice than to die for another human being.
The climax of the poppy celebrations are expected be on Remembrance Day, which is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to remember the members of their armed forces who died in the line of duty.
Chairperson of the Veteran and Ex-service Members League of Malawi, Charles Kalumo, hailed Mutharika for leading by example in buying the poppy.
Malawi has over 400 war veterans, according to Kalumo.
