Relief food excites beneficiaries
Beneficiaries of the 2024/25 Lean Season Response have expressed excitement following the launch of the maize relief distribution targeting 5.7 million people affected by hunger in the country.
Yesterday, the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) started distribution of relief maize to people affected by hunger in Neno and Blantyre City where more than 1 200 received a 50 kilogramme bag of maize each.
Speaking in an interview in Blantyre, one of the beneficiaries, Semu Vincent, 70, from Machinjiri Township, said she had been struggling to get food for her family of five.
“This bag of maize is a huge blessing for us as we will have food for the next 30 days,” she said.
Another beneficiary,Catherine Kumbambe, 73, said she had no food as most of the maize she grew in her farm was stolen, leaving her family of four facing hunger.
During the launch of the exercise at Kamuzu Stadium, beneficiaries were entering the facility in small groups to collect their bags. The arrangement helped to preventint chaos and theft of the maize.
Beneficiaries from Blantyre, Neno, Chikwawa and Mwanza are expected to receive lean response maize relief for six months while people in other affected districts will be assisted for five and three months.
Dodma director of preparedness and response Reverend Moses Chimphepo said the lean season food response was supposed to start in October, but the rollout has been fast-tracked following a directive from President Lazarus Chakwera.
“We have enough food to distribute to people until December and we are also mobilising more resources for the January to March period,” he said.
Dodma budgeted K278 billion for the food relief response programme and it is still receiving cash and kind donations from donors.
Blantyre City Council director of administration Lytton Nkata said the city has 50 000 beneficiaries identified by their own communities and the council only visited the households for verification.
Between July 1 and August 30 2024, Dodma also provided once-off relief assistance to beneficiaries in Chikwawa, Dedza, Dowa, Lilongwe, Machinga, Nkhotakota, Nkhata Bay, Nsanje and Salima districts.
During the 2023/24 Lean Season Response review in July this year, Dodma said it reached all the targeted 4.4 million people.
