Red Cross bails out starving households
As hunger bites harder across the country, about 2 000 hungry households have a reason to smile after Malawi Red Cross started supporting them with money for food.
The targeted beneficiaries are from parts of traditional authorities (T/A) Tengani and Ngabu in Nsanje and Kaduya and Mkumba in Phalombe.
Malawi Red Cross assistant disaster manager Roster Kufandiko said 1 000 needy people in each of the two districts will benefit from the money which is paid to them through Airtel Money service.
The beneficiaries were given mobile phone handsets to ease the process and the Malawi Red Cross made special arrangements with Airtel to ease access to the cash.
Each needy family is getting about K20 000 (about $30) per month, primarily to buy maize, legumes, salt and cooking oil.
The Malawi Red Cross had planned to start helping the people in November last year, but their donor delayed to release the money. Also contributing to the delays was the processing of necessary approvals from government, which took some time.
Speaking when he launched the project in Nsanje, Kufandiko pledged to pay the people arrears for the months of November and December.
“The delay was caused by the coordination issue between Red Cross and the food cluster. We had to write government to give us a waiver so that we can respond outside the MVAC [Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee] consortium,” explained Kufandiko, who is also coordinator of the cash transfer project.
One of the beneficiaries, Sofia Pitala, from Chamveka Village, T/A Ngabu, expressed gratitude to Red Cross for rescuing them from the jaws of starvation.
“We are in distressed need of not just food, but other basic social requirements and although this money will not settle all our problems, at least it is a relief,” she said.
Group village head (GVH) Kanyama also commended Red Cross for coming to his subjects’ recue.
The Malawi Red Cross decided to pay the people through Airtel Money after discovering that donated relief food was being sold; but reckoned that if people got money, they can decide on their own how best to use it.
This year’s food shortage is the worst the country has experienced in eight years with about three million Malawians in dire need of food aid.
A combination of floods and drought hit agricultural production, with yields at national level estimated to be nearly 30 percent below the previous season’s harvest.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has targeted to give relief food to 2.4 million people nationwide. n
