March in Malawi!

Cyclone Jude was due to hit Malawi mid-month, schools were closed and villagers waited in fear—remembering the death and devastation of Cyclone Freddy several years ago.   But Jude lost power and just presented storms locally though a bit more damage elsewhere.

March marks the height of the hunger period but then ushers in the maize harvest to the relief of all.  However, this harvest was patchy, and protracted as the erratic weather took its toll on the yield, some had done well, others brought little back from their fields. One colleague expected to harvest 70-80 bags but ended up with 7—perhaps enough for a few months but not the whole year and no income from surplus.  

So we’ve been encouraging growing cassava as an alternative. During this month we’ve given stems to 200 households, as part of the 800 homes supplied since January.

Alongside, 300 families have received sweet potato vines during March (650 since Jan), but the rains are now stopping so the annual planting season comes to an end and all need to rely on watering cans and buckets for irrigation in future months.

Also during March, apart from our usual provision of emergency resources and help in crises, we resurfaced a bridge on a main highway carrying hundreds of villagers and school children daily, and extended our chicken programme by another 10 families

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