Poverty looms in Khonjeni

By Albert Sharra

Poverty continues to hit hard in Khonjeni, Thyolo. Most families have exhausted the little maize they harvested after the January floods that hit 15 of the 28 districts of Malawi. The next option is to do piece works to get money to buy maize. However, with almost everyone affected by the floods, the piece works have become scarce and families are living on one meal per day. Also hard to find is relish. In the picture, women from Mwanandi Village in T/A Kapichi (Khonjeni) are hunting for crabs to use as relish.

Usually, when maize, the staple food has not done well, smallholder farmers rely on tuber crops such as Cassava and Sweet Potatoes, but it is a different story this year. The two including pigeon peas have not done well.

There is tough time for mothers who are breast feeding as this is dependent on good diet and there are fears that many children Under the age of 5 will be hit by malnutrition. Read more on mwnation.com website.

Aisha Raphael is struggling to breast feed her child
due to empty stomach

Ruth Wonderford and Mary Biziwick (Front) hunting for crabs

Biziwick shows poor cassava yield in her farm