Health
Is Everywhere

Humanitarian food assistance
in Malawi

The 2015-2016 drought was the worst in over 35 years, seeing farmers miss out on two consecutive rainy seasons. In April 2016, Malawi’s President Arthur Peter Mutharika declared this prolonged drought a national food insecurity crisis affecting nearly 3 million people. CPAR responded to the crisis by partnering with the World Food Programme (WFP) and our Canadian donors to distribute emergency food relief to over 113,000 people in over 20,000 households in Malawi’s Mzimba District. Priority was given to vulnerable populations including pregnant and breast-feeding women, the elderly, the chronically ill, and households headed by women, children or the elderly.

​

Project Goals

This project was designed to:

• To improve the food insecurity status of 20,653 households (113,594 people) to meet their missing food need through food response in Mzimba District for 3 months to zero thereby improving their food consumption by March, 2017.

• To improve nutritional status, knowledge, attitude and practices of 20,653 targeted households with special focus on pregnant and lactating women (PLW) and children under 2 through provision of fortified blends, nutrition related messaging and trainings on food preparations, food conservation / utilization and diet diversification.

• To improve asset base of 20,653 vulnerable populations (approximately 113, 594people) through provision of food support and of implementation of long term resilient building interventions.

Featured results

During the project’s three-month duration, CPAR has:
 

• Distributed over 3,000 tons of cereals, 600 tons of legumes, and 90 tons of vegetable oil Infants and pregnant and breast-feeding mothers received an additional 164 tons of nutritionally dense super cereals.

To help families mitigate the effects of future droughts CPAR provided:
 

• 5 tons of drought resistant corn seed.

• 116,200 drought tolerant cassava and sweet potato seedlings. The cassava and sweet potato seedlings are being multiplied by the recipients and will be distributed to neighbouring farmers in accordance with CPAR’s pay-it-forward principle.

• ​

Why this project is important

Schools in the Karatu District of Tanzania banded together and asked CPAR for help in this area, as they did not have the resources to provide handwashing stations and sanitation education to their students and staff. According to the most recent World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, 52% of those in Tanzania do not have access to handwashing stations using soap and clean water, while only 25% have access to what the WHO classifies as ‘safely managed sanitation services’.

Handwashing in settings where a lot of people are occupying the same area is critical to help prevent the transmission of disease and infection. By encouraging students and teachers to wash their hands as they enter the school and after using the bathroom, students, staff and teachers all safeguard their health against illness and disease. Handwashing stations and sanitation education are an easy, low-cost way to prevent the transmission of disease and ensure that children grow up healthier and able to attend school without fear of falling behind in their studies by missing days or even weeks due to illness.

Project Objectives

The 15 schools where CPAR is working do not have handwashing stations and were not equipped to clean the classrooms at the end of the school day. CPAR is showing teachers and students how to build tippy-taps with locally available materials, and providing each school with soap, sanitizer and cleaning agents. Masks will also be distributed to students whose families may not be able to afford them.

Over 115 handwashing stations will be built overall, averaging eight per school. These will be placed near the school entrances and the latrines, and students will be encouraged to use them by teachers and school staff. Proper handwashing and other sanitation and hygiene education will be given to the teachers, who will pass on the information to their students.

This project is expected to reach and benefit over 9,300 students, teachers and school staff from 15 schools in the Karatu District.