Lilongwe, Malawi … Maziko Kasnkhosi, a 12-year-old village girl, has realized the benefit of living in a village near the new distribution hub for Action for Progress. Were it not for this fact, and this fact alone, she and her family could easily starve. Maziko is just one of an estimated 460,000 children affected by the record setting cyclone that swept into Malawi from the Indian Ocean in March 2019.
As Action for Progress, in a joint program with the Malawi Project, World Emergency Relief, and Universal Aide, started food distribution Maziko spoke to Wilson Tembo,
“We have had no food for all of this day,” she said, as he handed her food for her family.
“Thank you so much for sharing with us,” she responded. Maziko is only one of an estimated 40,361 people in central Malawi currently facing an acute food shortage.
Tembo notes, “Old women and small children are most affected by the famine. Many are going to bed on empty stomachs, as they cannot afford to buy food. They are destitute,” he adds. “It only takes a small amount of food to save the life of a child.”
While some maize is available on the open market village people cannot afford the high prices to purchase it. Current prices are MK 15,000 ($20.50) for a 50-kg bag (110-lbs). In a normal year the price this time of year for that same bag would be around $5.00.