- Title: MALAWI: Welfare project aims to ease poverty
- Date: 30th September 2010
- Summary: SLATE INFORMATION
- Embargoed: 15th October 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Malawi
- Country: Malawi
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAB9U1ZWLWOGWRO15IJN01VAE0K
- Story Text: Seventy seven-year old Rozina Chimbalani didn't expect to have so many responsibilities at her age but after her daughter died four years ago, she was left with no choice but to look after her grandchildren.
This type of family is not unusual in this part of the world. Children's agency UNICEF estimates Malawi has over a million children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
According to AIDS charity Avert, one million of Malawi's 14 million people are living with HIV/AIDS and it is the leading cause of deaths amongst adults in the country.
"Life is difficult as I'm too old to work but I have been left with no choice but to go into the fields to try and grow some maize to eat," said Chimbalani.
A local welfare project is trying to help people like Chimbalani. The pilot project run by committees of local villagers assesses their own neighbours to establish whether they are among the poorest 10 percent of the community.
For the last two years, Chimbalani has qualified and is receiving money from the project, which is part of what's called a cash transfer scheme.
Along with her grandchildren, Chimbalani is one 28,000 families who've been part of this new project run by government and donors targeting Malawi's poorest.
According to the rules of the scheme Chimbalani gets the equivalent of about 14 U.S. dollars a month.
"I have given her 2,200 (Malawian Kwachas) because she is an elderly. She cannot work on her own. She is labour constrained and she has dependants who need to go to school," said Thomson Mwale, an accounts assistant for Mchinje district.
How the money is spent is up to beneficiaries. Having already eaten the crops from her own field, this month's priority for Chimbalani is food. A 50 kilogram bag of maize should last about six weeks.
Chimbalani will also spend some of her money on books and research shows that children in families that receive the money become healthier and more likely to stay in school.
"This is about trusting people knowing they are going to do the right thing with the money. These people have needs they know their priorities. They know they want their kids in school and want them to be healthy and well nourished. And they use the money how it's needed most," said Taylor Spadafora, Social Protection Consultant for UNICEF Malawi.
Having saved a little, she invested the money in a pig - which has now given birth to six piglets.
"This project has changed my life. If I didn't get the cash transfer my life would be miserable and I might even have died by now leaving the children on their own," said Chimbalani.
The Malawian government is hoping to extend the project nation-wide in the next five years at a cost of about 60 million U.S. dollars a year to provide a safety net for the country's poorest. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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