By Maria Tembo

Ntchisi, January 30, Mana: Ntchisi District Council, through the office of Disaster Risk Management, plans to distribute relief maize to 6,418 hunger stricken households across all the district’s Traditional Authorities (TA) in the 2023/2024 lean period.

Acting Disaster Risk Management Officer, Jeremiah Chirwa, told Malawi News Agency (MANA) on Tuesday that the council has so far reached out to 1,709 households with the relief maize.

The Council is conducting the distribution exercise from January to February 2024.

Chirwa advised beneficiaries against abuse of the relief maize cautioning imprudent use and selling of the donated items.

“I would like to advice beneficiaries not sell the maize as this would lead them to being scrapped off the beneficiaries list and their names will be replaced by those who deserve to benefit.

“Even though the exercise is not reaching out to all the affected households, the initiative is good and timely cushion against hunger shocks because people in the district are suffering,” said Chirwa.

In a separate interview, one of the beneficiaries, Laitoni Chatonga concurred with Chirwa saying the initiative was for their own good and selling the relief items would frustrate government’s efforts.

He said: “It will be sad and unfortunate if some of us will be involved in selling these items because our families’ survival depends on the same.”

The exercise follows a Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) report released in July 2023 which projected that at least 4.4 million Malawians are to face hunger during the 2023/2024 lean period.