Dowa District Council principal social welfare officer Gift Kambadya has called on new participants under the Social Cash Transfer Programme in the district to use the money to transform from poverty.
He said this on Wednesday in an interview after the council completed the cash disbursement exercise to 16 725 newly enrolled beneficiaries.
Kambadya said the programme was improving people’s lives in the district.
He said: “As you know, the programme has three main objectives, to end poverty, improve participants’ households’ nutrition levels and increase school enrolment.
“As a council, we are impressed with the programme’s progress because we have seen some participants doing well and improve on their household economic independence.
The new participants were enrolled around October – November 2024. During the cash disbursement exercise, participants received various amounts of money with some up to K140 000 for seven months.
Overall, the district is targeting around 19 043 participants to be enrolled into the programme.
In an interview, Dowa Community Savings and Investment Promotion (Comsip) Corporate Limited coordinator Emily Ntelemuka encouraged the new participants to join village savings and loans groups.
She said: “By joining these savings groups, they can learn a lot about saving money and be motivated to run small-scale enterprises.
“We can facilitate trainings on financial literacy, record keeping, business management, nutrition and home management.”
One of the participants, Laidon Saulos, of Kundwe Village in Traditional Authority Nsakambewa said the money helps her meet basic needs
