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Key facts about Malawi
Malawi is a land locked country, with a population of over 13 million and a population density of over 100 people per sq. km. More than half of the population live below the national poverty line of about $0.50 per day. Poverty levels have remained unchanged since the early 1990s.
There are chronic problems of hunger and alarming HIV and AIDS prevalence rates. Over one fifth of all people are not able to meet their minimum nutritional requirements while in 2005, approximately 14.1 percent of the adult population ages 15 to 49 in Malawi was living with HIV/AIDS. With one of the highest adult prevalence rates in the world, the epidemic has exacerbated social problems as diverse as food security and human resource capacity.
GOAL in Malawi
GOAL has implemented programmes in Malawi since 2002. A deadly combination of chronic poverty, bad weather, bad harvests, and a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS left almost 5 million people in need of food aid in the early part of 2007. GOAL distributes monthly rations of maize, oil and beans to over 34,000 households in Nsanje district. GOAL continues to implement supplementary feeding intervention to vulnerable and food insecure households orphans and chronically ill patients in Nsanje district to improve their short term food security and nutritional status. GOAL also distributes survival kits containing water treating chemicals and basic household items in the post flooding period to allow flood victims cope with in the new settlement camps.
GOAL is implementing a disaster preparedness programme focusing on building the capacity of communities and local government structures to prepare for and respond to emergencies and reduce future impacts of natural and human calamities.
GOAL’s other programmes the promotion of winter cropping during the dry season and growing techniques designed to increase crop diversification and protect the environment including, community gardens; small-scale irrigation; soil and water conservation; compost-making and 56 tree nurseries producing over 500,000 saplings. GOAL also provides sustainable livelihood options including livestock, poultry rearing and bee-keeping to the most vulnerable communities and trains communities in life-skills.
In Nsanje and Blantyre districts in southern Malawi, GOAL is running a nutrition programme designed to reduce child morbidity and mortality due to malnutrition by improving the nutrition and health status of children between the age of 6 months to 11 years. The programme delivers care to acutely malnourished people and trains communities in malnourishment combating options. GOAL also supports the Ministry of Health to roll-out Community-based Therapeutic Care (CTC) in 15 health centres in Blantyre district. GOAL is also overseeing the establishment of nutritional gardens in schools and communities.
GOAL is supporting communities in Nsanje district to identify and rehabilitate 550 malnourished children of 6 months to 5years identified in the community through Positive Deviance Hearth Sessions. These sessions utilise the good example of mothers with healthy children to teach other mothers in the community how to keep their children well-nourished and healthy.
GOAL Malawi also implements a HIV/AIDS programme in Blantyre, Balaka and Nsanje districts which provides support, treatment and care to those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. GOAL has overseen a number of AIDS prevention and care initiatives, including programmes to promote youth friendly services, provision of basic drugs and mosquito nets, improving the skills of health service providers, increasing the number of testing centres and preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
GOAL has been implementing a Construction Support Programme for People Living with HIV and AIDS through provision of meeting places and latrines. In order to reduce the spread of HIV infection among target communities, GOAL’s HIV/AIDS programme promotes prevention, empowerment and positive living. GOAL currently provides food to 9000 chronically ill patients.
The HIV and AIDS epidemic has heavily affected children. At the end of 2005, there was an estimated 91,000 children in Malawi living with HIV, and over half a million children had been orphaned by AIDS. GOAL’s orphan and vulnerable children housing construction programme is building 100 houses and latrines for orphan households in Nsanje district. The GOAL orphan feeding programme also provides 4,100 orphan households with a monthly food ration.
GOAL Malawi is also implementing the Nsanje education, water and sanitation (NEWS) programme to help improve education and hygiene facilities, food security and nutritional levels. Through this programme GOAL will construct over 100 new classrooms and rehabilitate over 50 classrooms over the next four years, including construction of toilets and teachers’ houses, and the provision of desks, chairs, books and other equipment. The project will also provide potable water and sanitation facilities for pupils, teachers and local communities and use health promotion messages in order to improve awareness and understanding of health issues.
Irrigation in Malawi
These irrigation projects move the farmers involved from harvesting less than they need to survive growing extra produce which they can sell: giving them a cash crop
for the first time in their lives. ( Listen to
GOALies describe the programs in Africa)
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