Catholic Development Commission (Cadecom) of Mangochi Diocese on Thursday disbursed cash to 300 hunger-stricken households from Traditional Authority Chilipa in the district.
It also distributed corn-soya flour (Likuni Phala) for porridge to 400 households from the area, who are in a similar food crisis, to prevent malnutrition, especially in under-five children.
Speaking during the distribution, the diocese’s Cadecom coordinator Pieter Nthenda said the intervention is under the “Food Crisis Support’’ project they are implementing to save lives in light of the food crisis.
He said: “This initiative is meant to support families affected by the El Nino-induced hunger, following a call by government to help about 4.4 million households facing hunger in the country, according to an assessment by the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee.
“We did a similar initiative in Traditional Authority (T/A) Mtumbwinda in Machinga in October, where we disbursed cash to 350 households and distributed Likuni Phala to 700 households. This is a once-off initiative, and we are here today.”
Nthenda said each household is receiving K100 000 through Mukuru Mobile Money to enable them buy two bags of maize (100kg) while the 15kg corn-soya flour is for porridge.
The diocesan coordinator said they chose to help people from Chilipa in Mangochi and Mtumbwinda in Machinga based on the report they got from the two councils’ disaster risk management.
A cash beneficiary, Emily Moses from Chocho Village in T/A Chilipa thanked Cadecom for the support, saying she has been rescued from the hunger crisis.
“We were surviving on mangoes. We never expected that a day would come when we will receive money to buy food. We see Allah in all this,” she said.
On her part, Sumini Mwamadi, who received Likuni Phala, said her children’s health will now be nourished.
Cadecom is implementing the intervention with financial support from Caritas Internationalis and Caritas Italiana worth about K95 million through Episcopal Conference of Malawi.
