Malawi on Friday smiled when it received 420 million Japanese Yen for buying relief food for the underprivileged and those affected by the recent spate of floods.
Japan has provided the 556 million Malawi Kwacha aid through World Food Programme (WFP), which has also appealed to international organisations to assist countries in southern Africa, which have been hit by floods this year.
The Japanese Embassy in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe said Friday that beneficiaries to the relief food would include the vulnerable, especially those suffering from HIV/Aids, women and children as well as victims of floods.
“The 420 million Japanese Yen will fund WFP’s procurement of Maize and rice for this assistance. WFP is now implementing the protracted relief and recovery operation in Malawi through assistance to populations faced by food insecurity as a result of natural disasters and HIV/Aids pandemic,” said the statement.
It is estimated that 1.2 million people would annually benefit from this operation.
The country’s local daily of The Daily Times said Monday the current Japanese contribution to WFP’s programme in the southern African country amounts to almost 14 percent of the funds required for WFP’s operations for the year 2008.
Currently Malawi has been hit by a shortage of maize with most of its selling points going without the grain.
And this year the country risks experiencing a food shortage with experts attributing the poor yield to floods and the dry spell.
Mozambique is also another southern African country which has been hit hard by floods with the recent cyclone Jokwe displacing over 500 people.
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