Malawi: Households which have been affected by hunger in Mwanza District will benefit from the 2024/25 Lean Season Food Insecurity Response Programme. The project is being run by the government of Makawi under which the hunger-affected households will recievee support.
Deputy Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture Owen Chomanika made thee announcement. At the time, he was attending the district launch of the programme at Phanda School as guest of honor.
The event is being hosted in the area of Senior Chief Nthache (Mwanza West Constituency) in Mwanza District on Friday.
“It is the government’s commitment to ensure that this programme is rolled out to all districts of the country so that every household affected by hunger is given food,” said Chomanika.
The Minister said that districts of Mwanza, Blantyre and Neno are the top three worst affected by the hunger situation. This is due to a number of factors including El-Nino, which resulted in a dry spell in some areas.
As a result of the situation the government decided that they could not wait until the situation got out of control. 13,950 houes will be receiving food crisis support through the government of Malawi.
Under the programme each targeted household is expected to receive 50 kilograms bag of maize per month up to March 2025.
Chairperson for Mwanza District Council Bellon Kasambwe commended the government for considering distributing the maize a month earlier (September) than anticipated when many households in the district are suffering from hunger.
He urged all those who received the maize not to sell or exchange it for beer because doing so would frustrate governments effort to fight hunger in the district.
Member of Parliament for Mwanza West Constituency, Joyce Chitsulo thanked government for rolling out the programme saying it will address food shortage among some of the affected households in her area and asked for more support from stakeholders to reach out to the rest of the people in need of the food aid across the district.
“It is not that people in my constituency did not grow the staple food but because the rains did not come as expected over the past two consecutive growing seasons,” said Chitsulo.