By Thokozani Chapola
People of the area of Traditional Authority Ngokwe in Machinga district have applauded the Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (CADECOM) of the diocese of Mangochi for the Cyclone Freddy response it has carried out in the area from July to October 2023.
Ngokwe is one of the hardest hit areas by Cyclone Freddy and CADECOM with financial assistance from Slovenia Aid through Caritas Slovenia, has been providing food and non-food items to 210 households whose houses collapsed due to the impact of the cyclone.
The items that CADECOM has been distributing to the villagers are 2 bags of maize, 2 litres of cooking oil, 1 blanket, 5 kgs of corn soya blend, 2 kgs of sugar, 2 kgs of salt, 10 packets of soya pieces, 10 kgs of beans and 500ml of chlorine. In addition to this, the commission also procured 10 family tents that were used by the displaced families.
Emma Ganizani, as one of the beneficiaries who has a family of 10 members thanked CADECOM for the assistance but was quick to ask for resumption of the response citing that since CADECOM stopped assisting them, they are back into problems of hunger.
Echoing the sentiments, Alister Witness Maluwa cited that during the time that she has been getting assistance from CADECOM, she has been preparing his farm in readiness for the next farming season.
In his remarks, Group Village Headman Ng’andu on behalf of Senior Chief Ngokwe, commended CADECOM for the timely assistance saying that his subjects were in real trouble due to the impact of Cyclone Freddy. “Most of my subjects were affected since their houses collapsed and the road that connects this area to the tarmac was swept away so it was really hard for people to access basic needs for their survival so CADECOM’s assistance was just timely,” said the chief.
According to Tapiwa Gama, the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of CADECOM in the diocese of Mangochi, the organization reached out to the victims after being concerned with the situation in the area. She also indicated that apart from the food assistance that was offered to the victims, the organization also helped in capacity building of three water committees, rehabilitation of three boreholes at Tukula, Jomo and Mhatere villages and other necessities for good sanitation like providing them with Chroline. However, she still went on to say that the extension of the project will depend on the donors.
CADECOM has used approximately 37 million kwacha to implement this project which has helped 1,260 people from 16 villages and some of them are Ngokwe, Khungwa, Kasukutu and , Nyamayawo.
Tropical Cyclone Freddy hit Malawi from in March this year and claimed lives of 679 people, over 537 others are still missing and thousands of housed collapsed rendering 650,000 people homeless.