JB storms Ndirande slums, to build house for poor woman: Mudzi Trust
Malawi President Joyce Banda on Wednesday made a surprise visit to the squatter township of Ndirande in the commercial city of Blantyre where she told an impoverished woman that she will build a new house for her under the Mudzi Transformation Trust.
President Banda said her vision is to support villages to access social and economic services that address most of their basic needs.
At least 20,000 villages stand to benefit countrywide from the Mudzi Transformation Trust project which is currently underway across the country.
The project aims at transforming villages and eradicating poverty among the people living in the rural areas.
The package for interventions include provision of clean and portable water, building assets of households, support farmers clubs to access farm inputs loans, facilitate access to markets and providing housing schemes among others.
“We are targeting 20,000 villages across the country which means there are a lot of people who are going to benefit from the project and it’s a good progress for us,” Mudzi Transformation Trust Executive Director, Macward Themba said.
“Already, we have managed to pilot 16 village sites countrywide starting with group village heads, headmen and the list goes on,” he said.
Commenting on the criteria used for identifying the villages, Themba said: “When we notice a village that has no access to clean and potable water, no good houses and poor road infrastructures among other necessities, we consider that village as poor which calls for its transformation.
“Beneficiaries of the initiative contribute small amount of input in form of bricks and sand towards the project of their choice.”
President Dr Joyce Banda launched the project in May as one way of eradicating poverty among people living in rural areas
