By the Office of Communications
The was a meeting yesterday on 27th April, 2023, at the bishop’s house of the diocese of Mangochi between the delegates from the Catholic Secretariat especially those in the Social Development Directorate and the diocese of Mangochi especially some of those who serve at the diocesan offices. From the Catholic Secretariat, we had Brother Mtuwana as an Acting Director of Social Development Directorate at national level, Chimwemwe Sakunda Dhlovu as the CADECOM National Coordinator and Richard Kussen as the Monitoring Evaluation Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Officer at national level. The aim of this meeting was to update one another on an aid from Caritas Italiana and map together on how to implement it.
According to Brother Ntuwana, the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) had received a funding of €100,000 from Caritas Italiana for Cyclone Freddy response specifically to be implemented in the diocese of Mangochi. As such, the aim of their coming was to discuss and plan how to spend this money appropriately. The project will be for a period of six months beginning in March 2023, hence being categorized as Emergency Appeal, following an appeal which the bishop of the diocese of Mangochi, Rt. Rev. Montfort Stima made on 17th March 2023. He urged this diocese to prudently implement the project for donor requirements satisfaction.
Chimwemwe Sakunda Dhlovu presented the program of activities and the response requirements as per donor agreement. She said that the project has got four result areas thus Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Food Security and Nutritional Demands, Access to Health Services and Protection from Sexual based abuses and other forms of violations. Further, she said it has 91% allocated for direct program costs, 7% for support costs and 2% for administration.
Richard Kussen advised that there should be some technical and finance monthly reports of all activities to be taking place in this project until its completion. The project is expected to start being implemented by first week of May, 2023.
Commenting on the program, the CADECOM Coordinator of the diocese of Mangochi, Mr. Peter Nthenda said that the areas to be targeted are the parishes of the diocese of Mangochi found in Machinga district.
Few months ago, there was a tropical Cyclone Freddy which hit calamitously the southern part of Malawi. Most of the people were displaced due to destruction of their houses, field crops being washed away by water and some of the victims sustained injuries. The diocese of Mangochi was among the dioceses which had many victims of tropical Cyclone Freddy.