By Wanangwa Tembo

Kasungu, April 2, Mana: District Social Welfare Officer for Kasungu, Ephraim Njikho has hailed the Sparking Disability Inclusive Rural Transformation (Spark) project for promoting the inclusion of people with disabilities in agriculture value chain activities in the district.

Coordinated by the International Labour Organisation, Spark is a two-year project that seeks to create and promote employment opportunities of people with disabilities in programmes that are funded by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) in Malawi.

Speaking on Monday during a community visit of Spark Project beneficiaries at Chulu and Chisinga in Kasungu west, Njikho said people with disabilities have often suffered in silence because they are invisible as they lack exposure hence missing out on socioeconomic opportunities.

He said: “The major challenge people with disabilities face is that they lack exposure. When they meet various difficult situations such as being excluded in socioeconomic activities, they don’t come in the open. They are invisible and suffer in silence.

“This is why we applaud the interventions under the Spark project which have helped to raise community awareness through advocacy and trainings to help people with disabilities enjoy their rights on equal footing like anyone else.”

National Project Officer for Spark, Vincent Kavala, said at least 300 people with all kinds of impairments have already found opportunities in the IFAD funded projects, specifically Transforming Agriculture through Diversification and Entrepreneurship (Trade) and Financial Access for Rural Markets, Smallholders and Enterprise (Farms).

The Trade project supports rural communities in the agriculture value chain while the Farms programmer supports household economic development through promotion of access to financial services.

Said Kavala: “We are targeting all people with any type of impairment through a rights based approach towards inclusion. We understand that people with disabilities face a number of barriers including attitudes from communities, extension officers, and also issues of inaccessible infrastructure and others which hinder their participation.

“I’m happy to report that we have made good strides in that we have over 300 beneficiaries included in IFAD funded programmes in Kasungu only, against our target of 428. We are sure by the end of this year we will have reached our target.”

According to the 2018-2023 National Disability Mainstreaming Strategy, there are over 1.5 million people with disabilities in the country and about 90 percent of them live in the rural areas surviving on subsistence farming.

Funded to the tune of $230, 000 (about MK400 million), the Spark project is also implemented in Chitipa, Nkhata Bay and Thyolo districts.