NEWS FROM MALAWI:
A Neighbours Aid team is currently in Malawi on a project monitoring visit which will be followed by a visit to Kenya. Our Neighbours Aid Malawi Director Joe Mukiwa will be joining the team for the Kenyan leg of the trip.
Joe Mukiwa – Malawi Director with Neighbours Aid CEO John O’Hara
Life is very difficult in Malawi at the present time. Drought conditions have eased a little in recent weeks with the late arrival of the rainy season. 80% of the people are subsistence farmers who rely on rainfall arriving at the beginning of the planting season. The government did not provide help for the small farmers this year so they could not afford to buy fertilizers and with the lack of rain, people will go hungry. Fertilizer prices have tripled since last year, a situation affecting many other commodities as well. A 50kg bag of maize, the staple diet for the people, feeds a family of five for two weeks. The price has risen from 4000MK to 15,000KW. Neighbours Aid feeds hundreds of children and a staff of 54 each day so our food costs have risen significantly.
“Poverty is pain; it feels like a disease. It attacks a person not only materially but also morally. It eats away one’s dignity and drives one into total despair.” A poor woman from Moldova in “Voices of the Poor – Can Anyone Hear us?” by Deepa Narayan.
