Government concludes rice distribution
Over 16,000 households in Thyolo district have received 16, 336 bags of rice, which is the last consignment of the 64,000 metric tonnes of the grain donated by the People’s Republic of China to Malawi.
The Malawi Government received the donation following a report by the Malawi Vulnerable Assessment Committee (Mvac) of 2017/2018 that over 1 million people in the country had no food.
Malawi pressed a panic button for international support to feed the people the report indicated would be food insecure.
The rice is worth over $4 million but the Malawi Government only pumped in about K161 million for the distribution exercise.
Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) has been distributing the rice to 10 affected districts, with the last two districts being Mzimba and Thyolo where the distribution was conducted on Thursday.
Dodma’s spokesperson Chipiliro Khamula has meanwhile described the exercise as a success.
“The rice is part of the lean period food situation response. We targeted over 1 million people which the report from Mvac of 2017/2018 said were food insecure,” he said.
One of the beneficiaries Elube Kadumba of Kuweruza Village in the area of Traditional Authority Changata in Thyolo hailed the donation, saying she did not harvest enough to feed her family throughout the year.
Kadumba said it was difficult to send her children o school on empty stomach, adding that the donation will even strengthen marriages in the area.
“I am very thankful for the donation. I did not harvest enough due to the prolonged dry spell to feed my four children. I tell you there can never be healthy families when there is no food,” she said.
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