By Lekereni Chinkhota

Salima, April 23, Mana: Salima District Council, through the office of Disaster Risk Management, has distributed over 9,000 bags of 50 kilograms of maize, as part of response to the Malawi Vulnerable Assessment Committee’s (MVAC) food report.

About 36,667 households were targeted to receive two bags of maize from January to February, as part of government's response to food insufficiency as projected by the MVAC's food report.

Speaking during the distribution exercise in Traditional Authority Kuluunda on Monday, Salima District Disaster Management Officer Gloria Chinangwa expressed her satisfaction on the progress made so far.

She said: “The progress is there because we started distributing the maize to different beneficiaries last week. We have managed to reach out to almost 9,000 households in eight out of the 12 T/As of the district. We are aiming to reach up to 36,667 households.”

Chinangwa has further assured all beneficiaries who are yet to receive the maize that the distribution exercise is ongoing and every targeted beneficiary will receive their portion.

“Not all the people in the Centre’s have been covered; there are others who have not received. People should stop worrying or doubting that the maize will not reach them. All of them will get the maize for this phase just as they did previously,” she said.

Group Village Head Ndembo of T/A Kuluunda expressed joy at the way the exercise is being conducted, observing that the maize will relieve most of his people who have been hit by dry spells.

“It is a relief to see people receiving maize because most families do not have adequate food. We have many challenges here as we are closer to the lake and with rising levels of water in our lake, we have no place to cultivate maize,” he said.

Ndembo, however, warned beneficiaries who would try to sell or buy the maize that his office will bringing them to book.

A beneficiary, Mwawa Imedi of Kuluunda Village, said he is not expecting to receive the maize for a second time because the maize he will receive now will take him almost a month to finish.

“This bag of maize will go a long way in alleviating our food insufficiency. On one side, we are facing dry spells and on the other, the water levels have claimed most parts of our rice fields; this maize will help us to have food as we wait to harvest our rice.”

Altogether, 638 bags of maize were distributed at T/A Kuluunda alongside other Centre’s that had the same activity on Monday.