Gender-Based Violence Survivors in Malawi Receive Economic Support
The ILIAR project has mobilized farmers into groups of 15 members each through mobilization meetings with smallholder farmers that are also SGBVs.
LILONGWE, Malawi - Gender-based violence (GBV) is a serious problem in Malawi, affecting women from all backgrounds regardless of their socio-economic status, writes Annie Kenya.
However, surviving GBV can be especially devastating for rural uneducated women, who are less likely to be economically independent and lack skills and opportunities to access business loans.
In an effort to address these challenges, the Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (CADECOM) is working to help GBV survivors take responsibility of their own lives by engaging them in commercial farming interventions.
“Insecurities is also associated with failure to feed themselves and their families, so we are so much concerned to make them financially empowered through improved modern farming methods and technologies,” said Charles Matewere, the Coordinator for CADECOM in the Archdiocese of Lilongwe.
CADECOM is implementing a project entitled “Improved Livelihood and Resilience for GBV Survivors” (ILIAR-Project) in Ntchisi district with support from the Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and Dan Church Aid (DCA) Malawi Joint Country Programme.
The project targets 1,235 beneficiaries in Traditional Authorities Kalumo and Chilooko in the district.
Its interventions focus on improving farming of high value horticultural crops through micro-drip irrigation alongside Goat pass-on programme.
Matewere said CADECOM is also supporting GBV survivors to find access to profitable markets for their produce.
“So far, we are aiming at empowering community structures to take more ownership of the project. So through field days, we are linking project beneficiaries, adopters and re-inventors to dealers in micro kits so that they can easily access the kits whenever they want to invest or reinvest,” he said.
Farmers have already started reaping profits from the horticultural crops.
“In the meantime, incubators are at the peak of leafy vegetable sales and, we expect to add on the profits as the month of August gave us MK 568,200.00 total income in all the 14 incubators that are established here,” said the project Agronomist, Madalitso Chilalire.
Christina Banda of Gamba village, a chair for Tikondane club’s incubator, said they have learnt a lot and are yearning to turn into a cooperative in the long run.
“We have been equipped with all the knowledge and skills from the onset of production up to the period of marketing the products. As a club the goal is to reach an extent where we can be operating as a cooperative so that both individual members and the group benefits have a way to collectively be sold at once,” she explained.
The ILIAR Project is being implemented within the existing framework of another project funded by the NCA-DCA Malawi joint country program that is being implemented by Women’s Legal Resource Centre (WOLREC) to complement the efforts that are already being made.
The project has to date reached out to 1065 SGBVs including women and youth.
The services provided by the project will improve rural livelihood of the SGBVs through improved agricultural productivity.
The ILIAR project has mobilized farmers into groups of 15 members each through mobilization meetings with small holder farmers that are also SGBVs.