Malita Chaya is a widow trying to raise three children alone. They live in southern Malawi in the tiny village of Maluwa, under the leadership of Chief Ngabu in the Chikwawa district. They are the 4th generation of their family from this area, she is physically challenged, and this family lives in the 8th poorest nation on earth. Unlike first world nations who have massive programs of aid for those less fortunate, there are little or no programs of government aid for a woman in Malita’s position in Malawi. This is the plight of living in one of the poorest nations on earth.
As in years past Mrs. Chaya took her children to the fields in late 2014. They toiled hour after hour to prepare the fields for planting. Then one seed at a time they carefully walked up and down the rows and placed seeds in the soil. Then they waited patiently for their crops to come to harvest.
Wilson Tembo, Distribution Officer for the Malawi Project picks up the story.
“Torrential rains swept in from the east without warning or mercy. Those who toiled fields near the rivers were first to suffer. Rivers rose above their banks and the crops disappeared in the rush of muddy torrent of dirty brown water. As the waters continued to rise entire villages disappeared along with trading centers that had stood their ground against the rivers for decades. The meager amount of food that survived the winds and foods started being reduced to zero, long before the days of the new harvest. The next planting will be in September-October, but will Malita Chaya and children have enough food to sustain them to work in the fields? The next harvest will not come until March-April of next year. Will the family be intact at that time or will some of the children die from starvation before the grain ripens?”
Malita and her children live in a mud-thatched village far from the main road. They have little access to the city, and even were they to go there they have no money with which to make purchases. The government is helpless to offer aid to their remote village, and there is no insurance against their loss of crops. Far too many of their neighbors suffer the same plight, and this makes it impossible for others to help. In fact a few months ago over 200,000 people found themselves without homes and crops because of horrific rains and winds that swept the area. Only outside aid can help these people reach the next successful season.
