By Wanangwa Tembo

Kasungu, February 25, Mana: At least 24,760 families in Kasungu district have received relief maize from the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) under the Lean Season Response Plan for the 2023/2024 period.

The programme has planned to meet the January and February food deficits for a total of 31,778 families with each household receiving a 50 kilogramme bag of maize each month.

Disaster and Relief Management Officer for Kasungu, Tiwonge Msowoya, said in an interview on Saturday after the maize distribution exercise in Traditional Authority (TA) Simlemba in the district that the response team has so far reached out to 24,760 of the targeted households.

She said: “The programme has a combination of beneficiaries under the Social Cash Transfer Programme and those that are targeted using the Joint Emergency Food Assistance Programme guidelines and, currently, we are responding to the January deficit.

“The activity is ongoing until we reach our target. We just want to advise the recipients that the maize must be used to alleviate their food needs. It is not for sale.”

One of the beneficiaries, Mercy Jere, thanked government for the relief saying it has come at a time when most households had run out of food stocks.

“We don’t have food here. No one has maize. We were relying on piece work in farms to buy food but you can see that the farming season has almost ended and there is no where we can find piecework,” Banda said.

Senior Chief Simlemba commended government for the maize saying people in his area were starving with hunger.

“The community is excited that finally the maize has reached us. Some people had doubts that the maize would come because the famine had reached bad levels. Our expectations are high that the second lot of the maize will find us soon,” Simlemba said.

According to the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) report, at least 4.4 million people countrywide are food insecure with food deficits ranging from two to six months. 

In Kasungu district alone, hunger has affected at least 143,000 people.