Machinga Residents Receive Relief from Hunger
As many people continue to struggle with hunger across the country, residents of Paramount Chief Kawinga in Machinga district are breathing a sigh of relief after receiving financial support to help them feed their families.
The beneficiaries, including the elderly, people with disabilities, and those severely affected by acute hunger, were identified through a Joint Emergency Food Assistance Program (JEFAP) by Norwegian Church Aid and DanChurchAid (NCA/DCA) Malawi Joint Country Programme.
Augustine Tonde, senior humanitarian response officer, explained that the organization, through Find Your Feet, learned that people in the area had been severely affected by hunger due to insufficient harvests caused by El Nino weather conditions.
“People in this area did not receive enough rains due to El Nino, resulting in insufficient harvests for their families during this period,” he said.
The organization provided financial support to alleviate the suffering of the people in the area and provide relief for a short period.
One of the beneficiaries, Idesi Raphael, a single mother of six children from Group Village Head (GVH) Chapusa, described the financial support as timely, stating that she had no food for her children.
“The money has come at the right time; I had nothing to feed my children. We relied on mangoes as our daily food, but with this support, I will buy food for my family,” she explained.
She added that her maize and rice crops failed due to insufficient rains.
Paramount Chief Kawinga applauded the organization for the gesture and appealed for the support to be extended to other communities that have not benefited.
However, the Paramount Chief expressed concern over the rapid population growth in his area, despite the severe hunger, and advised people to access Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) services in health facilities to reduce teenage pregnancies.
He emphasized that ignoring SRHR issues would exacerbate the problem, as the country continues to face climate change effects such as El Nino and cyclones.
The one-off multipurpose cash transfer humanitarian response, targeting 750 households, was funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, DANIDA. Each beneficiary received K80,000.
According to the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) 2024 report, over 270,000 households in Machinga district alone have been affected by acute hunger.
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