Malawi Red Cross Society has disbursed cash to 500 hunger-stricken households in Traditional Authority (T/A) Dambe in Neno District as part of humanitarian efforts to alleviate their suffering. The initiative covers three months from January to March and the beneficiaries have received K180 000 each for January and February. The beneficiaries are expected to receive the final K90 000 for March this month end.
Malawi Red Cross Society emergency operations coordinator Louis Solomon said they planned to disburse the funds from January, but they delayed due to weather conditions that made most of the roads in the district impassable. “These are the people affected by hunger, but did not benefit from relief maize that the Department of Disaster Management Affairs because of mobility challenges,” he said. Solomon said Red Cross mobilised K2.8 billion from the International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent Societies Swiss Red Cross and Danish Red Cross to assist 4 800 households in Neno, Chikwawa, Nsanje and Blantyre districts.
One of the beneficiaries, Puligita Francisco from Masamba Village, T/A Dambe thanked Red Cross for the support and promised to use the money for its intended purpose. “I am so grateful because this has come at a right time because I have not yet harvested my crops,” he said. Neno district disaster risk management officer Amos Chandilanga said vehicles carrying relief maize do not reach the area due to bad roads as such they decided to give cash to the beneficiaries to buy food for themselves.
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“T/A Dambe is a hard-to-reach area and people travel long distances to receive relief maize, sometimes they spend more money to transport the maize after receiving it,” he said. Chandilanga advised beneficiaries that the money should not be used to perpetrate gender-based violence, but to buy food. In October 2025, President Peter Mutharika declared the State of Nation Disaster following severe food insecurity in the country.
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