By Alick Mhango
KARONGA, (MaraviPost iReport): Communities of Traditional Authority Kyungu in Karonga the northern part of Malawi have expressed satisfaction over the distribution of relief food items by Comitato Internazionale perlo Sviluppo Deipopoli (CISP) a Malawi-Italian based organization claiming that it has bail them out from the hunger situation that is currently biting the country.
Speaking when receiving a 25kgs of maize, 1liter of cooking oil and 5kgs of beans, William Mwawembe said his family can now afford a smile as they have been depending on natural vegetables as their daily meal for a long time.
According to Mwawembe, the hunger situation have also affected the school going children in their area as they are forced to help their parents in searching food such as doing some piece work to source money for meals which is now a thing of the past.
“As people who cannot afford to source food on our own especially because of the price as well as its scarceness here in Group Village Headman Kalambo the area of Traditional Authority Kyungu in Karonga, we are very much grateful with the help which CISP has given us because we now have food for a day,” said Mwawembe.
“A part from resuming to our daily meal, our children will now start going to school without a hunger problemas they have been also bailed out from the burden of helping us in sourcing food and money,” he added.
Concurring with Mwawembe Village Headman Mwankenja2 said “we are really grateful to CISP but all we can ask now is that the number of beneficiaries should increase because 22 household is very few comparing to the total number of the households here because a lot of people are still facing the hunger problem.”
He then pleaded with the organization to extend the period of the donation saying “we are told that this is the last month of receiving food a thing which is very worrisome because we have also been hit by floods this year, as I am speaking all our cropsthat we cultivated have been washed away, so they should continue saving many lives who are at risk of dying of hunger.”
In his remarks the District Coordinator for CISP Yusufu Kadwala said the initiative is under the Food for Assets project which is a response to the hunger situation which Malawi is facing due to natural disasters.
“As we all know that Karonga is one of the districts that are commonly known of being affected with natural disasters such as floods,as such CISP is implementing this project so that those who were affected in 2014-2015 rainy season should benefit and recover their assets in long run,” said Kadwala.
He further say “this is a one year project which also involves in empowering people through Village Savings Loans (VSL) and those interested in this service have already been trained, some are on construction of fish pods, others are in irrigation among other things with the aim of helping them to survive the hungerthey are experiencing.”
Food for Assets project which the CISP implement in partnership with Karonga district council key sectors like agriculture, irrigation ,health,forest,public works among others in the area of Traditional Authority Kyungu in Karonga district targeted about 428 households in each of the four GVHs namely Kalambo, Mweneguwe, Mbemba and Mwiloro-Mwenechilanga with financial support from different donor communities like UKaid ,USAID ,EU,Brazil,Nowergun Ministry of Foreighnaffiars ICEIDA ,Japan,,COOPERAZIONE ALLO SVILUPPO MAICIand the Governmrnt of Malawi among others through WFP.