Watipaso Mzungu JNR

Barely a day after rolling out the distribution of relief food items and cash to hunger-stricken families in Nkhotakota on Monday, the Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (CADECOM – Caritas Malawi) on Wednesday invaded Nthunduwala Camp in the area of Sub Traditional Authority (ST/A) Nthunduwala in Kasungu with a similar intervention.

In Kasungu, CADECOM – Caritas Malawi disbursed K100, 000 each to 100 households and provided relief foodstuffs to 120 others to alleviate hunger that was induced by prolonged dry spells in a number of districts in Malawi.

The natural disasters forced President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera to declare a State of Disaster and called upon the international community, non-governmental organizations and people of goodwill to collaborate with his government in mobilizing financial and material resources for aiding households affected by natural disasters.

In response, the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), through its development arm – CADECOM – Caritas Malawi – sourced K724 million from Caritas Internationalis and Caritas Italiana for the implementation of a Food Crisis Project in 11 districts.

Speaking when he handed over the cash and foodstuffs at Nthunduwala Camp, ECM Deputy Secretary General Father Joseph Sikwese reiterated the Catholic Church’s commitment to providing social and spiritual support to those in need.

“This donation demonstrates our commitment to reaching out to those in need. We sincerely thank our donors – Caritas International and Caritas Italiana – for providing us with the resources, which we’re handing over to you today,” said Sikwese.

Camp chairperson, Stanley Lyson Nkhoma, thanked the Catholic Church for providing them with support in all aspects of life, including nutritional and spiritual nourishment.

He, however, appealed for more support, emphasizing that the residents do not have food as they cannot produce their own food.

“We don’t have fields to farm. This makes us more vulnerable because we literally have to wait for relief items to survive,” said Nkhoma.

CADECOM National Coordinator Chimwemwe Sakunda pledged her commission’s commitment to continue complementing government efforts to provide assistance to households that were affected by the effects of El Nino early this year.

Nthunduwala Camp is currently accommodating 127 households with a total of about 380 people who became homeless after being evicted from the tobacco estates where they were working as tenants.

The families were retrenched in the mid-1990s after which they trekked to Zambia where they also worked in farms on the encroached western side of Kasungu National Park before being banished and dumped at Nthunduwala in 2012 where they were told they would temporarily stay for one week.

But 13 years down the line, the government is yet to allocate them land to live, forcing the residents to live in conditions that the Catholic Church believes is inhumane.

Meanwhile, Father Sikwese has asked the government, through the Ministry of Lands and Urban Development, to expedite the process of identifying and allocating land to the campers considering the inhumane conditions the campers are living in.

“It is high time the government lived up to its word to allocate the families land for permanent residence. We don’t need to have residents in their own land. These are Malawians and the government has a duty and responsibility to take care of them,” he stressed.