By Brian Wasili.

Mwanza, September 21, Mana: A total of 13,950 households which have been affected by hunger in Mwanza District have been assured to benefit from the 2024/25 Lean Season Food Insecurity Response Programme which government is distributing to hunger-affected households.

The assurance was made by Deputy Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture Owen Chomanika MP who was guest of honour at the district launch of the programme at Phanda School in the area of Senior Chief Nthache (Mwanza West Constituency) in Mwanza District on Friday.

“It is the government’s commitment to ensure that this programme is rolled out to all districts of the country so that every household affected by hunger is given food,” said Chomanika.

The Minister said that districts of Mwanza, Blantyre and Neno are the top three worst affected by the hunger situation in the country due to various reasons such as El-Nino, which resulted in a dry spell in some areas therefore the government could not wait until the situation got out of control.

The maize distribution exercise is a response to the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee 2024/25 report which projected that about 5.7 million people in the country would require food aid between October 2024 and March 2025, citing delayed onset of rains, prolonged dry spells and high cost of agricultural input as some key contributing factors.

Under the programme each targeted household is expected to receive 50 kilograms bag of maize per month up to March 2025.

In Mwanza, of the total of 62,777 people that need food support 13,950 households have been targeted for the programme, translating to 5,185 from Traditional Authority (TA) Nthache while 6,108 and 2,657 families are in TAs Kanduku and Govati respectively.

Chairperson for Mwanza District Council Bellon Kasambwe commended the government for considering distributing the maize a month earlier (September) than anticipated when many households in the district are suffering from hunger.

He urged all those who received the maize not to sell or exchange it for beer because doing so would frustrate government’s effort to fight hunger in the district.

Member of Parliament for Mwanza West Constituency, Joyce Chitsulo thanked government for rolling out the programme saying it will address food shortage among some of the affected households in her area and asked for more support from stakeholders to reach out to the rest of the people in need of the food aid across the district.

“It is not that people in my constituency did not grow the staple food but because the rains did not come as expected over the past two consecutive growing seasons,” said Chitsulo

A beneficiary, Joyce Golasi, 62, from Nguteya Village in the area said she has lived on eating mangoes therefore the maize will address the food shortage in her household.

“I will take care of this food so that my children should not suffer because of hunger,” said Golasi.