16 January 2003
Hunger & cholera
Although not
as critical as in some rural areas of Malawi, the Chata community was not
spared the hunger that affected the whole country in 2002. According to
Ministry of Agriculture figures, there was a deficit of over 6800 tonnes
of maize produced in the area. People resorted to eating wild roots, which
induced diarrhoea and aggravated the spread of cholera.
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Making latrine lids
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Health initiatives in Chata Area Development Programme (ADP) have reduced
the incidence of cholera outbreaks.
Unfortunately they can still occur when people from adjacent villages,
with no diarrhoea disease control programmes, seek treatment at the health
centre situated in the heart of the ADP.
Another contributing problem is that sewage from Lilongwe city pollutes
the Lumbadzi and Lilongwe Rivers, which flow along the borders of the
ADP.
Chata ADP responded promptly to the outbreak by providing drugs and
medical supplies. Sadly, four people in the ADP area died of cholera-related
illness, but the ADP’s cholera prevention and treatment initiatives
successfully averted a higher death toll.
With a donation from World Vision New Zealand’s Global Aid Partners
fund, Chata ADP bought maize flour for 4000 farming families. The timing
was critical, as maize, the staple food, had become too expensive for
most people to buy and almost impossible to source. Additional funding
from World Vision Taiwan helped the ADP purchase seed and fertiliser for
over 1900 households.
Community leaders took responsibility for selecting the families most
in need of food relief, distributing 10kg of maize flour to each family.
This enabled people to leave their immature maize to grow, rather than
eat it. Chata ADP provided 2.5 tonnes of beans for distribution with the
flour.
The food relief also brought back some families who had left the ADP
area in search of employment in the tobacco estates and or in nearby Lilongwe
City. This partially redressed a 25 percent reduction in school attendance
that the hunger situation caused.
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