By Mary Makhiringa

Balaka, September 30, Mana: Social Cash Transfer Program SCTP beneficiaries in Balaka have hailed government for the Social Protection for Gender Empowerment and Resilient (SP-GEAR) component.

In the component, SCTP beneficiaries are taken through financial literacy trainings with formation of Village Savings and Loans (VSL) groups to instill beneficiaries’ saving culture for better livelihood.

The beneficiaries are also taken through the Early Childhood Development (ECD) component with child corners that are meant to provide safe space to play, relax, have fun and socialize.

A 52 years old beneficiary, Raphael Maselema from Ndoya village, Sub Traditio9bnal Authority, Kapalamula told Malawi News Agency (Mana) on Monday that VSL groups have helped beneficiaries to improve their household income, adding that they were into small scale businesses courtesy of the savings.

“Apart from the financial part, we are also encouraged to refrain from any form of gender based violence (GBV). We used to have cases of men that could spend cash on beer at the expense of family welfare.

“We always meet on Monday afternoon and we are encouraged to plan and budget together (as a family) on important things that should help our family grow. We are further encouraged to prioritise on buying food, sending our children to school if we have any,” added Maselema

Another SCTP beneficiary from the same area, Benson Kakhome, 48, said that beneficiaries were advised to refrain from GBV and that they should report any form of GVB to relevant authorities.

“We are aware that we are supposed to give feedback on corruption, GBV or anything to do with the programme to a special committee that has been instituted in our area on the harmonized grievance redress mechanism,” explained Kakhome who has been in the programme since 2022.

On his part, District Community Development Officer (DCDO) for Balaka, McDonald Nyaka disclosed that his office registered more VSL groups since the onset of SP-GEAR.

“So far, we have mobilized 464 VSL groups out of SCTP beneficiaries and others that are not SCTP beneficiaries. Out of 9,341 beneficiaries, 8,819 are those from the SCTP which is encouraging and my office is hopping to enroll more as the registration is continuous,” he said.

Social Welfare Officer responsible for SCTP, Mphatso Chisepa said her office has the duty to monitor SP-GEAR activities.

“SP-GEAR activities are complimentary to SCTP. We will be monitoring number of GBV cases reported. This will help us to measure if people really grasped the concept and in the same way by the end of this year, we will also know if all SCTP beneficiaries have registered in VSL groups,” she added.