Churches Action in Relief and Development (Card) has disbursed money to 1 760 food-insecure households in Traditional Authority Ndamera in Nsanje District.
Speaking during the handover on Wednesday, Card programmes manager Arthur Lichenya said the money is for beneficiaries to buy maize for three months.
He said: “This intervention is under the El Nino response project, which is being implemented by a consortium of partners.
“We rolled out the initiative because of the El Nino weather phenomenon which affected crop yield in the 2024/25 growing season. Nsanje is one of the districts that was affected.”
Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) deputy director of disaster response Fyawupi Mwafongo said they are satisfied with the project’s interventions.
He said: “We have a national resilience strategy to break the cycle of food insecurity. One of the initiatives is moving from over reliance on relief items to irrigation farming.
“We have started reaching out to partners to help in revamping irrigation schemes.”
Care Malawi humanitarian assistance manager Burnnet Khulumbo, whose organisation is also implementing the response, encouraged beneficiaries to diversify their crop production.
One of the beneficiaries, Rose Elias from group village head Dick, said the dry spells affected her crops.
“I had nothing to eat until I received the money to buy food,” she said.
The response is led by Care Malawi and other partners such as Self Help Africa, Foundation for Community and Capacity Development, Card, Eagles Relief, YouthNet and Counselling, Catholic Development Commission in Malawi and Save the Children.
The response seeks to address severe food insecurity and malnutrition in eight districts, targeting 15 035 households through multi-purpose cash transfer nutrition support.
