Cash Transfer Initiative offers livelihood lifeline among beneficiaries
Nearly two years ago, Edna Ng’ambani of Kaliyati Village in Phalombe lost hope in life. The longest-lasting and most destructive Tropical Cyclone Freddy washed away all her crops and livestock, leaving her and her two sons reeling in its trail of destruction.
Hopeless and helpless, Edna’s family joined many other desperate households at a nearby evacuation camp in the hope of receiving relief support from humanitarian agencies.
“It was hell. Cyclone Freddy rendered my family destitute. Even my parents became helpless, so our only hope was humanitarian aid which would only come in trickles,” recounts the visually impaired Edna.
Having survived a year-long shadow of Cyclone Freddy, the 46-year-old Edna hoped the 2023/2024 season would bring good tidings. Unfortunately, the season was adversely affected by the El-Nino induced dry spells which damped prospects of a good harvest.
“As a helpless visually impaired mother who relies on my parents and two sons for survival, the dry spell came as yet another death sentence to our family. We did not harvest anything and that affected the food situation in the house. We would at times eat once a day. In worst cases, we would spend a day without food,” recounts Edna.
Edna’s family is, however, just a face of the soaring food insecurity crisis brought about by the El-Nino disaster. The Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC) mid 2024 released a report that showed 5.7 million Malawians were food insecure and desperately needed support till the 2025 harvesting season.
As a social justice organization working with communities in disaster vulnerable districts including Phalombe, Chiradzulu, Nsanje and Mchinji, ActionAid Malawi in partnership with its local partners, mobilised resources worth MK210 million to support households severely affected by food insecurity.
Launched in October 2024, the support was in form of a Multi-Purpose Cash Transfer Program targeting a total of 2,100 beneficiaries in all the four districts. The beneficiaries included female and child-headed households, the elderly, disabled and the ultra-poor, especially those not any existing social protection program.
Using its Humanitarian Signature approach, ActionAid Malawi worked with local partners, namely; Chigwirizano Women Movement, Centre for Victimised Women and Children (CAWOC), Kuchene Women Forum and Kapiri Community Development Organisation in collaboration of district councils in assessing beneficiaries and distributing cash support.
Edna was one of the beneficiaries and she now remarks glowingly about the support for offering her a sustainable livelihood option. Edna invested the cash, worth K100,000 in her grocery shop, hoping to use the profits to meet her immediate family needs.
“I used the cash support to invest in my grocery business so that I can be living off the profits of my business. I will work hard to ensure the business grows and help me become self reliant. I don’t want to be a beggar like what most visually impaired people here do,” she says.
Hundreds of kilometres away from Phalombe, Ellen Belo another cash transfer beneficiary says she will now no longer be trekking to the hills every morning to fetch firewood for sale as a means of surviving the food crisis in the disaster vulnerable Nsanje District.
"To survive, I would take on piece work and sell firewood which earned me about K1500 (about 80 cents) on good days. However, due to rising costs of food including maize, which is our staple food, K1500 would only buy three kilograms of maize here. After receiving cash support worth K100,000 in October, I used K60,000 to buy a bag of maize and beans. I used the balance to start some small-scale vegetable business to support my family on a sustainable basis. We no longer go to bed hungry,” says Ellen
While the path to full recovery remains long for Edna, Ellen and other Cash Transfer Initiative beneficiaries, the support by ActionAid Malawi is seen as a key step in picking the pieces and getting back to lives for disaster survivors.