NGO gives Nkhotakota people relief maize

Spanish-based charity organisation Helping to Help has distributed relief maize to 100 food-insecure households in Traditional Authority (T/A) Mwadzama in Nkhotakota District.

The beneficiaries consisted of the elderly, orphan-headed households, people with disabilities and those with chronic illnesses. Each household received a 50-kilogramme bag of maize to cushion them against the current food crisis in the country.

Speaking during the event on Tuesday at Kasipa Primary School, the organisation’s country representative Devline Msowoya stressed that the right to food is a fundamental human right.

He said the organisation is geared to support sustainable initiatives towards food security amid the impact of climate change. 

Msowoya said there was need to urgently focus on producing drought resistant crops which do not require fertilisers as well as the use of farm manure as a substitute to synthetic fertilisers.

“We will provide cassava stems to targeted households and set up seed banks to ensure constant availability of planting materials,” he said.

On his part, group village head Galeta hailed Helping to Help for the initiative, describing it as a key to addressing food insecurity in the area.

He pledged the communities’ support towards the project.

One of the beneficiaries, Barnabas Matuta said they were looking forward to receiving the stems to grow the cassava to produce their own food.

He said: “We thank the organisation for the relief maize, but most importantly we are excited to grow cassava to address food shortage in the area.

“We also believe that learning to make manure will help us a lot instead of using chemical fertilisers which are expensive.”

The 2023 Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee Report projects that 4.4 million Malawians will be food-insecure during the 2023/24 lean season.