Malawi is in the midst of a famine. According to IRIN, this is Malawi's biggest food crisis in a decade. This calamity comes a year after devastating floods wiped out crops and irrigation systems in southern Malawi Although last fall All Hands partnered with the Muona Foundation in Nsanje District to build 48 irrigation wells for subsistence farming communities, there is a serious shortage of seeds to grow enough food for the communities.
"Farming is a risky business anywhere in the world, but especially if you are a subsistence farmer in southern Africa, where a few weeks of too much or too little rain can wipe out your one hectare of maize and your ability to feed your family in the coming months." (IRIN News) Families face hardships like starvation, increased child deaths and malnutrition, decreased school attendance due to inability to pay fees, and inability to afford seeds next planting season. Help break the hunger cycle!
Together with the local Muona Foundation, we will provide 5 kg of maize seeds each to 500 families in Nsanje district of Malawi. We will ensure the neediest families are helped first. This seed-distribution project is an emergency fix that can help keep people from further cyclical hunger, malnutrition and debt during a nation-wide hunger crisis. The 48 wells already built by the Muona Foundation and All Hands Volunteers will assist the irrigation of the seeds to be distributed.
With this seed distribution, 500 Malawian families will be able to feed their families, and avoid long-term cyclical effects of hunger and poverty such as malnutrition, starvation, and child/infant death, falling deeper into debt against next season's crops, pulling children out of school.
