‘Women empowerment key to ending GBV’

Lilongwe district gender development officer Gertrude Simwaka says empowering women is one way of ending gender-based violence (GBV) which is rampant in the country.

She said this on Saturday in Lilongwe at Mkwinda and Chitekwere Extension Planning Area (EPA) where women showcased farm produce they realised under Agriculture Sector Wide Approach (Aswap) in collaboration with UN Women.

“We are working with partners in carrying out awareness campaigns on GBV to ensure that people know that GBV retards development,” she said.

Lilongwe Agricultural Development Division principal agriculture gender roles extension support services officer Esnart Kalunga asked male champions to enhance their efforts towards women empowerment to improve productivity in the agriculture sector.

“We encourage women to participate in agriculture interventions to improve income generation at household and national levels,” she said.

Alinafe Cooperative Initiative chairperson Martha Chivunde said they produce liquid fertiliser from rotten green plants.

“With the increase in fertiliser prices, we have now resorted to using fumba liquid fertiliser which is affordable,” she said.

Chivunde said fumba can be applied to different crops, including groundnuts and maize.

Madzumbi Aggregators Club chairperson Rhoda Tsitsi said men and women are working together to produce madzumbi porridge flour from soya beans as one way of fighting malnutrition among children.

She said most children in the area have been struggling with malnutrition such that they could not perform well in school.

Group village head Madzumbi said at least 80 percent of children have been suffering from malnutrition in the area.

Aswap offers a strategy for supporting priority activities in the agricultural sector to increase agricultural productivity and make Malawi a hunger-free nation.