By George Mponda

Karonga, August 8, Mana: Members of Luwonya Cooperative from Group Village Head Mwashunguti in the area of Senior Chief Mwirang'ombe have said investing the wages they receive in Community Savings and Investment Promotion (COMSIP) has made them financially secure.

Speaking on Tuesday during a media tour, Community Facilitator for Luwonya Cooperative Tereza Ngwira said by investing part of the money they receive after each cycle under the Climate Smart Enhanced Public Works Programme (CS-EPWP) they have made profits through groundnut sales.

Ngwira said: "Our cooperative has 47 members of which 28 are women and 19 are men of which most are also participants of CS-EPWP in Thabiro Micro Catchment. Together, we grew groundnuts and managed to harvest 750 tins which we have sold at MK10, 000 each and we made MK7.5 million."

"The profits from this were shared among members and I have used my portion to buy a new farm and iron sheets which I will use to construct a new house. I also started a successful bakery business through the money I receive from my shares in the cooperative and am using that to pay school fees for my daughter,” she added.

Another member, Maggie Kapira hailed CS-EPWP for enabling her to be in charge of her income generating activities.

"At the end of each year, we receive money from my CS-EPWP wages which I invest in COMSIP. I used to sleep on a mat but now I bought a bed, mattress and goats with this money,” she said.

On her part, Flora Mwangayiro a COMSIP case worker in Thabiro catchment said they encouraged participants of CS-EPWP to join COMSIP in order for them to be sustained even after the programme ends.

"They will not be receiving the wages forever so it is important for them to invest their money in COMSIP by buying shares in order for them to keep benefiting even after the programme phases out.

Through CS-EPWP, participants from Thabiro are now buying land, building houses, buying livestock and they even have good nutrition in their homes because they invested their money in cooperatives and they are reaping the benefits.

CS-EWP participants receive MK38,000 at the end of each cycle if they worked all 24 days.

It is a government initiative under the Social Support for Resilient Livelihoods Project implemented by National Local Government Finance Committee, with financial support from the Multi-Donor Trust Fund and the World Bank.