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Background

In 2002, PDA worked with the Presbyterian Church in Malawi, responding to famine in South Africa. The relief program, which consisted mainly of food aid and basic medical assistance, helped provide hope to people of the region affected by drought.

In October 2004, the program began a recovery and mitigation phase, with the primary objective of empowering affected communities to regain their potential and become self-reliant. Another drought in May 2005 held the program in the recovery and mitigation phase and attempted to avoid a repeat of the large-scale human suffering and hunger-related death hunger that was seen in 2002.

In July 2006, the Chingale Neno Recovery and Development Program (CHINRAD) was formed to continue the work begun by the church. CHINRAD is working to promote self-reliance through intensified developmental services such as food security, child survival and psychosocial programs.

When floods affected vulnerable communities in January 2008, relief was provided in the form of food and non-food assistance. A proposal was prepared for program activities to help alleviate suffering of those households whose crops were washed away, through food relief assistance, and to work toward food security by irrigation farming.

Reports below cover activities of the ongoing CHINRAD program from February to July 2008 and flood-related relief activities from March through July 2008.

The operational areas are Chingale in T.A Mlumbe, Zomba District (population 189,000), and Neno District, T.A Mlauli, southern region of Malawi (population 19,600).

Goals

The program goal of CHINRAD is to rehabilitate community functioning at equivalent or better levels prior to the crisis of famine and HIV/AIDS.

Areas of primary focus are:

• Food security — including extension services, crop production, crop diversification, small scale irrigation, land resource management, livestock restocking and trainings.
• Child survival — including environmental health education, provision of unimix to severely malnourished children, HIV/AIDS and other trainings, etc.
• Psychosocial programs — including Community Based Child Care (CBCC), adult literacy, recreation, child protection, school feeding program and women participation, etc.

Achievements — February to July 2008

Training

• Literacy instruction sessions were provided for 15 instructors; five of the instructors facilitated training for 106 learners in their communities.
• Crop storage training was provided for 60 contact farmers, which in turn trained another 200 farmers. Training included information about methods of storage, recommended chemicals and mixing rates, resulting in 200 farmers storing their maize in grain form instead of on cobs.
• Training on irrigation techniques and maintenance of equipment was conducted for 50 farmers, who shared the skills and knowledge with another 125 farmers. Skills were clearly observed in the farmers' plots.

Maize production

• Actvities included harvesting, purchasing of storage pesticides and storage of maize.
• Farmers were badly affected by the floods and water logging in January. Half of the 400 farmers harvested 250 - 600 kg, but the other half were unable to harvest more than 50 kg. Recovery efforts helped save some of the maize, which will be distributed to vulnerable communities, restoring a sense of self-help.

Livestock and Animal Husbandry

Photo: Roberta Updegraff

• Goats were distributed to five groups of ten women farmers per village. The benefit of kraal manure is already being used in irrigation farming. Families will be able to pay for school fees and other household needs.
• Eight offspring were born, with five of the kids distributed to new beneficiaries.
• Veterinary drugs and vaccines were distributed to paravets, which used them to treat 83 goats.

Irrigation

• Twenty-five treadle pumps were purchased, each for a group of five farmers.
• Crops grown using irrigation farming were at an advanced stage, with an indication of better yields. Vegetables were used for home use and sold, with proceeds used for other expenses.

Rehabilitation of Shallow Wells

• Eight shallow wells in the remaining four villages were identified and rehabilitation materials purchased.
• After rehabilitation, people in the villages did not walk long distances to fetch water from streams and ponds, allowing time for other activities.
• Reports of cholera were drastically reduced in the four villages.

Flood Relief

• The most vulnerable households in the communities — those most affected by the floods — were selected as beneficiaries. Considerations taken were total crop damage, wetland to cultivate irrigation farming, benefeciaries to be non-recipients of other NGO or government assistance and relief aid to be delivered irrespective of race, religion or political affiliation.
• Food aid was provided to 350 households in Chingale.
• Each household received enough white maize for three months, maize seed for irrigation farming, 3,500 packets of assorted vegetable seeds and fertilizer.
• Implementation/Coordination: relief maize and farm inputs were purchased by the project staff; community leaders were fully involved with distribution, assisted by staff, chiefs and joint recovery and development committee members. The Ministry of Agriculture staff were also involved during distribution and visited irrigation farming fields.
• The flood relief work was successful, and the communties were thankful.

Challenges

• The cost of purchased maize for food and farm inputs increased; cost of food has risen since harvest time.
• Due to the general situation aggravated by floods, water logging and lack of farm inputs, the prediction is that in the areas of Chingale and Neno, some farmers may experience critical food shortage in early 2009, with the price of food too difficult to afford.

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