At least 662 households that were affected by Tropical Cyclone Freddy in Phalombe, Chiradzulu, Blantyre and Mulanje are expected to benefit from relief items and other interventions provided by Blantyre Synod’s Health and Development Commission.
Board chairperson for the commission, Watson Ligomba, said they have secured K144.5 million from the Presbyterian Church of Northern Ireland for the project.
Ligomba said apart from providing relief items, the project will also provide legume seeds to 99 households and support 198 families with seeds for irrigation to improve their social and economic status.
“Under the project, we will also support reconstruction of at least five houses with iron sheets, cement and nails,” Ligomba said.
Deputy General Secretary of CCAP Blantyre Synod Reverend Baxton Maulidi said the church has an obligation to meet the physical needs of vulnerable communities.
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“Apart from preaching the word of God, the church has a responsibility to assist those in need. This is why beneficiaries are not members of our church only,” Maulidi said.
The synod officials were speaking at Mpasa CCAP in Phalombe, where they distributed relief items which comprised flour, beans, soya pieces, salt and sugar to households affected by the impacts of Freddy.
Group Village Head Mkhumba of Phalombe hailed the church for the support, saying his subjects have been surviving on mangoes.
A beneficiary, Filby Wilson, 82, said she has been struggling to make ends meet from the time the cyclone, which heavily battered the Southern Region, washed away her crops.
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Recorded by the World Meteorological Organisation as the most energetic storm to lash the southern hemisphere, Freddy left massive destruction in its trail.
It is believed to have killed at least 1,200 people apart from displacing more than 650,000 others.
