A food and supplies crisis could soon hit the Dzaleka refugees camp in Dowa district with government disclosing that it is only remaining with supplies that could last four months.
 
Minister of Homeland Security Ken Zikhale Ng’oma attributed this to a recent decision by the World Food Program which has cut to 50% all food and supplies assistance towards refugees.

He said this at a press briefing in Lilongwe yesterday, where he appealed for support.

“The World Food Program has reduced from 75% to 50% the supplies of food stuffs to the refugee camps in Malawi with effect 1st August, 2023. This will have an effect on our part because it will now be like a bottleneck for the government. This is why we urge everyone to help us, so that we can lobby donors.

“The supplies that we have will last up to 31st December 2023. We need to find a way that we should be able to support the refugees beyond that period,” said the minister.

At the briefing, the minister also said government will continue with the refugees relocation exercise. But he admitted that at the moment, the exercise has been hit by funding challenges as his department has not been able to get all the allocated funding for the exercise from the treasury.

Ng’oma also fired a warning shot to all refugees that have returned to towns and cities, that they have seven days to return to Dzaleka, failing which the government will be compelled to revoke their asylum and refugee status.

“We are giving all refugees that have returned to cities and towns to return to Dzaleka Refugees camp within seven days. If they do not comply with this notice, they will revoke their status and deport them out of this country. Everyone must return and follow proper procedures for conducting business in Malawi. You cannot be operating a business in the country illegally,” Ng’oma said.

Meanwhile, Executive Director for Center of Democracy and Development Initiatives (CDEDI) Sylvester Namiwa says this is a key indication, that the refugees do not need to be condemned into camps, as a good number of them can feed themselves.

“We warned the government to stop that exercise for the following reasons; first, it lacks merit and that it made no sense, Africans victimizing fellow Africans. Why would the government force them into very congested camps? People that were self-reliant? The same government that is failing to feed its prisoners and its citizens, how would it feed the refugees?” asked Namiwa.

Dzaleka refugees camp in Dowa district currently has over 50 000 refugees against a holding capacity of not more than 14 000 refugees.

Old Mutual (Malawi) Limited has become the first financial service provider in the country to launch a financial education podcast, dubbed “On The Money”. According to information sourced on the organisation’s website; the first episode features Old Mutual's Group Chief Executive Officer, Edith Jiya, and Old Mutual's Financial Education expert Benard Chiluzi as a permanent guest.

One of the country’s leading funeral service providers Mthuzi Funeral Services Limited has embraced the use of technology in its service delivery in a bid to make life of its customers easy when accessing their services. 

Old Mutual (Malawi) has expressed satisfaction with strides made in its "Kuitsata Pension Yanu" campaign launched in October last year.

Patuma is a commercial sex worker. She ekes her living through sex. She says her work is dehumanizing. This is because decisions in her work are mostly made by her clients.

She is one of the many women that suffer from unimaginable violence that is concealed in commercial sex rooms in Malawi: a story of women suffering in silence.

Such women are forced into sex without condoms, for example, in situations where the women are drunk or where the husband’s sexual behaviors are known to risk the lives of their wives, which puts the women in the harm’s way of injury and disease.

In this special investigation, Innocent Kumchedwa encounters not only sex workers like Patuma but spouses as well who lament the dominance of men on matters of sex and its effects.

Innocent, further ponders on the opportunities some newly invented scientific means to prevent sexually transmitted infections provide for these vulnerable women.

Fatsani Keneth is a 15-year-old form one student at Malowa Community Day Secondary School in Chipoka Salima.

Innocent Kumchedwa investigates the dilemma of some parents to disclose early to their children, born with HIV, their status.  

71-year-old Stelia Saka from Chavu village Traditional Authority Chiwere in Dowa, for the past three years has been harvesting just enough for her five-member family.

Old Mutual Pensions Services Company (OMPSC) and Old Mutual Malawi Life Assurance Company (OMMLAC) have launched a mass campaign that will among others highlight beneficiary nomination and pension claims procedures.

Old Mutual Malawi Limited is set to host the second edition of the Partnership Conversation Series (OMPCS), a tailor-made event aimed at enhancing partnerships and conversations that would propel development, shared value  and mindset change.