Family Adoption Programme
Family Adoption Program (FAP) has a total of 342 adoption children in its program, who are based in Thyolo (147) and Chikhwawa (195).
The following activities have been implemented:
Day-Care Supplementary Feeding
In order to ensure that both Nursery School and Primary School students have access to food, Stephanos is implementing a Day-Care Supplementary Feeding Program at Chitapata and Mphatso Nursery School, benefiting 50 orphans and vulnerable children at both sites, on monthly basis.
Volunteers prepare food for the children from Monday till Friday and contribute vegetables, tomatoes and firewood to the program.
The food situation in the area is not good at all since the majority did not have a sufficient harvest, following the floods and cyclones in 2022.
The children at the Day-Care Centres usually have only one meal a day since the limited food supply at household level is used during the weekends.
T.A. Ndalama personally phoned me to report this situation and request for Food Relief during the coming months as many people are suffering.
Payment of school fees
FAP Thyolo has currently only one child at Secondary School for whom school fees have been paid.
Monitoring Goat Pass on Program
The program is going on very well and the 23 families who received a goat in December 2022 are taking good care of them. This shows that the training received was beneficial to them as they are able to detect the signs of heat and built a recommended raise kraal. Goats belonging to 8 children are now in gestation period.
Monitoring VS&L groups
The VS&L groups are doing well and two groups from Mphatso will be giving out their shares on 12th July 2023.
Small Scale Irrigation
Farmer from Mithande Scheme planted tomatoes while others from Chitapata and Nanseta are now off season awaiting to harvest the rain fed crops. The Mithande Scheme farmers managed to buy two goats from their tomatoes sales and gave one to the men and one to the women in the group for Pass On.
Management meeting
Management meetings were held with all executive committees (volunteers). Challenges and Annual Plans for 2023 were discussed and solutions found together. Performance and impact of the committees will be monitored during the coming months.
Expansion FAP – Thyolo
There is a proposal to expand the FAP activities in Thyolo, including and not limited to
- Adoption of Tsangatulo to become a Day-Care Feeding (the place where we usually meet during a distribution)
- To adopt an orphan care project run by a Christian lady in Luchenza and make it also a Day-Care Feeding
- To rent an office in Luchenza (Mk100,000 per month) in order to visualize Stephanos’ existence in Thyolo/Luchenza and to separate work and privacy for the Field Officer since he is now operating from his home.
FAP Chikhwawa
Management meetings
The Project Officer conducted management meetings with all volunteers at the 3 sites (Maseya, Ngabu and Khoko) and facilitated the election of new office bearers by the community. The new committee members were oriented on the program and were taught how to make an Annual Action Plan as well as Monthly Reports.
Food Distribution
The SDF Canada supports a program of 4-months Food Relief to 800 vulnerable families in Chikhwawa. The beneficiaries are FAP and G4G members with some from the community. The first two distributions of 25kg Maize Flour took place on Tuesday 24th January and Tuesday 21st February 2023. Two more will be done in March and April.
Cotton Inspection
Khoko has been assisted with inputs for Cotton Farming in November 2022. The fields were inspected and the germination is very good. It seems that less farmers were ableto have access to cotton seeds last year which gives an added advantage to the current Cotton growers as the prices to be offered for the cotton are expected to be higher due to scarcity of the product. Khoko has been assisted by Govt officials who provided the training as well assist in harvest and marketing. It is expected that Khoko will be able to buy it’s own piece of land for future Cotton Production after the sale of this season’s product. We are eagerly following this new development since the PM advised them to change from Irrigation farming to Cotton farming due to challenges met with the maize production and upon the interest of the committee members in cotton farming.