Pita Banda, a mother of two in group village head Mbeza in Dowa, does not really remember the last time she had K21, 000 cash at once. She can make money from piecework and get as much as K5000 that is immediately spent on household needs without a significant saving.
While they have a sizeable land for crop production, she confesses that they are into subsistence farming and nothing “serious for sale”. When the weather is bad or say during drought – they really starve. For Banda, only if she got an opportunity for more money, she would invest it into something else to make her home food secure.
“When I got selected to participate in the works program from which I could be earning K21, 600 in a month, I felt like I was dreaming. It was too good to be true” she narrated during an interview at her place whose surrounding speaks for itself how it has been improved.
A few meters away from the house there is a heap of harvested maize, which she calculates to be worth 15 bags of 50 kilograms each and can take them through to the next season as a family of four. Besides the maize the chicken, of different sizes, are seen loitering as if to prove her right that she indeed owns them. At a distance, pigs are seen feasting on the feed she had just provided them.
“If you came last year at a time like this one, you would have nothing to see here. I have bought the chickens and pigs through the money I got from the works program. I never had a chance to make such money in my life. For three phases I got K64, 800” she explained with a sense of pride.
Banda is among those enrolled in the government funded Enhanced Public Works Programme (EPWP) which is being implemented in 10 district councils including her Dowa district. It is an eight month pilot program which targets ultra-poor households who are engaged in public work.
Banda is among 200 beneficiaries in Tovi catchment area in Dowa who are undertaking a re-afforestation initiative in a 250-hectares of land. So, far they have planted about 40,000 trees and making every effort to conserve these trees in the interest of the community itself.
“The community work for 24 days. The first five days is community contribution and the rest of the days they are paid K21, 600. They have so far received this money for three cycles” explained Julius Thaulo an agriculture extension worker in the area.
Banda’s story mirrors other beneficiaries. Each one of them has a success story to share. It looks like some health competition amongst themselves. Some will talk of how they have managed to improve their housing, others have been able to pay school fees for their wards and indeed some have bought themselves assets such as bicycles for personal use and business.
Hanki Manjulenje from group village headman Kasalika in the same district is another beneficiary whose biggest achievement is her ability to buy new blanket – she always wanted to have.
Recounting her benefits, she said from her first pay she bought the subsidized fertiliser and a bag of maize for food and from the second payment she bought a goat at K18,000.
That is not all she said: “I longed for a South African blanket which comes with a carrier bag. Once I got the third payment I really needed to buy this and indeed I bought it. I felt embarrassed for lack of better beddings, I now have something worth showing off”.
The pilot EPWP, under the National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC), was rolled out in September, 2020 run for eight months. Other beneficiary districts are are Chitipa, Karonga, Nkhotakota, Kasungu, Lilongwe, Balaka, Chiradzulu, Phalombe and Blantrye.
