By Wanangwa Tembo

Kasungu, December 11, Mana: The Catholic Church through its Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (Cadecom) on Wednesday donated corn soy blend locally known as Likuni Phala and cash to residents of Nthunduwala Camp and the surrounding households in Kasungu District.

Making the donation, Deputy Secretary General for Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) Father Joseph Sikwese bemoaned the dire conditions in which the camp residents live saying the church will do all it can to engage government to assist the people who have been left destitute for 13 years.

“We needed to reach out to the people at Nthunduwala Camp considering that they don’t have land where they can stay, cultivate crops and live a productive life.

“Here they are literally doing nothing hence they are suffering. They are not lazy people, only that they have no land and survive on piece works where they are also abused by not being paid their dues in some instances,” Father Sikwese said.

He said the church through its arms, has been following up with government to have the camp residents relocated and that it will continue to do so until the camp is decommissioned and its residents relocated to their own land.

“We will not get tired until these people are assisted. No person should be a refugee in their own country,” he said.

Nthunduwala Camp is home to close to 400 people who have lived at the place since 2012 after returning from Zambia where they had gone seeking jobs after being retrenched in tobacco estates in Kasungu District.

While expressing gratitude for the items received, chairperson for the camp, Stanley Nkhoma, said a permanent solution to their predicament is to give them land where they can cultivate.

“There is no dignity living a life of begging as is the case here at the camp where we usually survive on donated items and piece works.

“We want land. Give us land where we can be producing our own food, raise families and send children to school. That is the only permanent solution to our problems,” Nkhoma said.

With funding from Caritas International to the tune of MK724 million, the Catholic Church is responding to food deficits, targeting 3, 749 households with corn-soy blend and 3, 230 others with cash transfers amount to MK100, 000 each in 11 districts including Kasungu.

El Nino weather conditions during the last growing season has caused widespread hunger in the district where at least 43, 000 households have been earmarked to receive food relief coordinated by Department of Disaster Management Affairs.