LILONGWE, May 31, Mana: Four elderly women aged between 55 and 80 were spotted sitting together at Nyachirenda Evacuation Camp in Nsanje during a sensitisation meeting on gender based Violence (GBV), Prevention of Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (PSEAH) that Malawi Irish Consortium on GBV organised weeks after the disaster.

The expression on their faces was, not surprising thou, that of despair and resignation as they peeled what, from a distance, looked like a darker variety of Irish potato.

Like hundreds of others at the camp, and in many Cyclone Freddy Camps, the four women had lost almost everything, including the food they had in their houses, and the food they were yet to realize from the crops in their fields.

The camp had, at the time of the visit, exhausted the food that the Department of Disaster and Management Affairs (DoDMA) had supplied and it was an every-man-for-himself; God-for-us-all affair as they awaited the next supply.

"The situation is dire here," complained one of the elderly women, Jessie Million, when this reporter engaged them in an interview.

"We've run out of food and this is all we can make do with," she added, showing this reporter the presumed 'dark variety of Irish potato'.

"We call this Nyika, and it is common food here in Nsanje, although we do not eat it by choice because its taste isn't all that pleasant," explained Million, who hails from Thaundi Village, GVH Ngulume, TA Ndamera in the district, just like the other three.

According to the elderly women, Nyika grows in marshes, or on river banks, and the plant comes in handy as food during lean periods, despite its unpalatability.

Most of the camps that the Malawi Irish Consortium on GBV visited for sensitisation in Nsanje, Chikwawa, Blantyre and Thyolo, reported insufficient food supply as key challenge facing them.

At one camp in Chikwawa, Mission for Africa, in Traditional Authority Lundu, Cyclone Freddy survivors there claimed that they had stayed for a week living on porridge and beans.

"We received porridge flour and beans: So what we are doing is to harden the porridge a bit so that it replaces nsima as we take it together with the beans," explained one, Ester Chapepa.

But while the survivors have had to endure food shortages for days before more supplies from DoDMA and other humanitarian organizations and individuals, it is life after the camp that scares the internally displaced persons (IDPs) a lot.

The future is grimmer to the elderly like Million and her fellow three senior citizens at Nyachirenda Camp; single mothers looking after their families, and children looking after themselves.

One such displaced person is Dorica Green, a single mother who hails from Group Village Headman Kasambwe, Traditional Authority Makhuwira in Chikwawa, and she was among the displaced people at Livunzu Primary School in the East bank.

Green survived the disaster together with her four children aged between 12 and two.

"We lost everything, except these clothes which we’re putting on till today," explained Green, cradling her youngest child who was half naked from the waist upwards. "I really don't know where to begin from after leaving this camp," she added.

The issue of food insecurity among the displaced people is a cause for worry to the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, too, as, according to the ministry’s spokesperson, Pauline Kaude, the situation creates room for GBV.

Kaude observed that food insecurity in camps puts pressure on household heads some of whom consequently resort to abandoning their families: a form of GBV.

“Food insecurity is also linked to GBV since it leads to high levels of sexual Exploitation, abuse and harassment (PSEAH) of survivors in camps by both the people with positions in there, and community members surrounding camps,” she added.

The spokesperson said her ministry, together with partners, will continue to carry out GBV and PSEAH awareness campaigns, consistently, while enhancing women economic empowerment to enable them to ably provide needs for their households.

Statistics indicate that the impact of Tropical Cyclone Freddy weighed heavier on women than it did on men.

According to DoDMA's Tropical Cyclone Freddy Emergency Response Plan, out of the 2,267,458 people who were affected by the disaster, 1,156,819 were women and girls of reproductive age, accounting for 51.0 percent.

The Response Plan further notes that approximately 202,095.5 hectares (ha) of cropped area belonging to 467,958 households were destroyed and, of the affected households, 241,535 (representing 51.6 percent) belonged to females.

Furthermore, according to the Response Plan, those affected and rendered food insecure, in one way or the other, were 1,637,351 people from 363,856 households where 794,399 belonged to males, while 842,952 belonged to females, respectively accounting for 48.5 and 51.5 percentages.

“The situation is critical for people who are living in camps as they lost almost all their items, especially food,” reads the Response Plan, under ‘Food Security’ section.

It adds: “Owing to this situation, there is a need to urgently support the affected people with food assistance: Priority food items to be supplied are cereals, pulses, and oil; and corn soy blend for under-five children, pregnant and lactating women for the prevention of malnutrition.”

The DoDMA’s three-month Response Plan, which was released in March, is targeting the 363,856 households (1,637,351 people) who were highly affected by the Cyclone.

The plan’s key aim is to address “the immediate survival needs while restoring basic socio-economic services, and facilitating the affected people’s transition to early recovery”.

According to DoDMA, the successful implementation of the Tropical Cyclone Freddy Response Plan requires MWK147.8 billion and the agriculture sector alone requires MWK21.1bn to help the displaced people and those who lost their crops recover.

The Response Plan intends to immediately support 279,517 affected farming households out of the overall 467,958 affected farming households.

The targeted households include 168,956 (with a total area of 50,429 hectares) with maize seed and fertilizers for winter cropping to improve the households’ food and income security to sustain their livelihoods.

Additionally, DoDMA plans to support 110,561 affected households with sweet potato vines and bean seed, on a total area of 33,000.8 hectares, according to the Response Plan.  

According to DoDMA spokesperson, Chipiliro Khamula, as of Monday, May 29, 2023, only 75 camps remained un-decommissioned in 9 councils from the initial 749 camps that DoDMA established in 16 councils to accommodate 659,278 displaced people.

The remaining camps are in Zomba (1), Machinga (8), Thyolo (5), Chikwawa (22), Mulanje (7), Phalombe (1), Chiradzulu (1), Mangochi (1) and Nsanje (29).

“In collaboration with various humanitarian partners, we are providing the affected people with a return package, which includes food and non-food items such as tarpaulins, plastic sheets for temporary roofing, maize flour, clothes and in some cases, cash,” explained Khamula in response to this reporter’s brief questionnaire.

He added: “Plans are also at an advanced stage for the provision of cement, through councils; to selected marginalized households for reconstruction of houses in safer places.”

For the displaced people in some areas such as the Lower Shire, with the winter cropping season now at hand, timely provision of farm inputs such as seeds and fertilizer, as highlighted in the DoDMA Response Plan, is a most welcome idea.

“We farm all year round, here” explained Million, one of the senior citizens at Nyachirenda, gathering the Nyika food she had been peeling together with her three other contemporaries.

“Other than rain-fed farming, we rely on winter cropping here using residual moisture; so, if we can be assisted with the required inputs in time, perhaps life after leaving the camp would not be as scary as we are imagining it now,” she said.

Mana/km/scm