Bisiyoni Mteteya’s productive life came to a screeching halt in 1998 when he lost his sight.

The 90-year-old man, who lives in Jordan Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Lundu in Blantyre, says life became tough as he could not do piecework to support his four-member household.

With a broken heart, he says the situation ripped his home to debilitating poverty.

“I was the breadwinner,” recalls Mteteya. “But the foul play-related blindness immediately affected my abilities to provide basic needs for my family and educate children. We lost our possessions like goats and chickens because my mentally-challenged wife could not manage them.”

The father of two children says since then, they have lived in dire conditions.

The nonagenarian says his family experienced perennial hunger as he could not do any farming activity.

He says: “I was the only one producing our food. Even if people helped us to grow maize, we failed to harvest enough on the barren field due to lack of money to buy fertilisers, among other challenges.”

Over the years, they have been surviving on alms from well-wishers in the neighbourhood.

“Most days we could stay on an empty stomach or just a meal a day, depending on availability of well-wishers,” he recounts.

However, from 2018, the household’s living conditions begun to improve. Not only do the Mteteyas eat three meals a day, they consume well-balanced diets.

The family also achieves food security as it affords to buy fertilisers and hire farm labourers.

The Mteteyas no longer wallow in extreme poverty.

The old man credits the strides made to a government-led Social Cash Transfer Programme (SCTP) under Social Support for Resilient Livelihoods Project (SSRLP) being implemented through the National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC).

Bankrolled by the World Bank, the programme provides monthly cash grants to 7 897 ultra-poor and labour-contrained households to eliminate debilitating poverty in the district.

As one of the poor, Mteteya was enrolled in the programme in 2018. He was receiving K7 200 until December 2021. He now gets K10 000 monthly.

“The amount may be seen as small change, but it has contributed to our improved living conditions. We no longer starve. I saved some from the grants and ventured into livestock and poultry production (seven goats and chickens). We are escaping poverty,” he says.

Blantyre District Council social cash transfer coordinator Dumisani Maona is pleased that the intervention is reducing poverty.

“It is exciting to note that beneficiaries are becoming food secure and acquiring assets. The intervention is on right track, helping beneficiaries to have improved nutrition, health, school enrolment and shelter in the district,” he says.

Mteteya asks government to increase the payment to fast-track his dream of living in an improved modern shelter.

Contributor: Temwa Mhone