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Cash transfers

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24 December 2024

Volunteers turn savings groups into successful enterprises

Susan Chimpikizo is famous in Traditional Authority Chanthunya’s territory in Balaka District, southeast of Malawi capital, Lilongwe. She is one of over 300 community-based trainers trained by the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare. Susan works with 12 groups. Every week, she visits two t...

24 December 2024

Savings groups build on social cash transfers

When night falls, Elliot Mbewe, a standard three learner at Chilanga Primary School in Balaka district, southern Malawi, fetches his books and his seven-year-old sister, Hafiza, to study under solar-powered light bulbs on the wall. The glow shines a light on the benefits of the Social Cash Transfer Programme (SCTP...

24 December 2024

Leticia finds joy in wires and pliers

20-year-old Leticia Dambe wanted to become a soldier but swapped the battle dress for an electrician’s work suit. During our visit to the SOS Vocational Training Centre in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, she was familiarising herself with the basic wiring of a building. “It’s exciting to design, install and maintain e...

Complaints handling system improves social cash transfer operations

When 51-year-old Nancy James from Chimphutsi Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Maseya in Chikwawa district tragically lost her daughter in July 2022, she was faced with the overwhelming responsibility of taking in two more grandchildren. As the head of one of the 293 000 Malawian families which depend on the So...

Malawi embarks on a new programme to address poverty among women and girls

LILONGWE, 23 April 2024 - The Government of Malawi has embarked on a new three-year social protection programme to empower the most vulnerable women and girls in nine districts to get out of extreme poverty. The districts are Mzimba, Ntcheu, Balaka, Chikwawa, Mulanje, Mwanza, Neno, Nsanje and Zomba. The programme,...

22 February 2024

Social policy: Esime’s story on recovering from Cyclone Freddy

Esime explained that the impact of the Cyclone Freddy on her life was profound. The cyclone caused significant damage, destroying her house and everything in it. “It was a difficult and overwhelming experience to see the destruction firsthand. However, in the face of adversity, I remained resilient. I immediately ...

04 December 2023

Social cash transfers spur financial inclusion

A brown hen moves about with its chicks, looking for food in a compound, and the 64-year-old Grace Mulinde from Mackenzie Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Matola in Balaka, cannot believe her luck as she stares with pride. She has never owned chickens before, but making it on the Social Cash Transfer Programme...

08 November 2023

Social cash transfer helps children’s education

Following her divorce in 2012, the 42-year-old Mercy Makina and her four children from Kadwala Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Ganya in Ntcheu, lived miserably as she had no stable source of income to keep them all afloat. "We did not have a house, and we were sleeping in a kitchen. It was also difficult to f...

18 October 2023

Sustaining the transformation made through social cash transfers

Toliya Chiwindo, 48, is a single mother with six children. She lives in Makwangwala area in Ntcheu district. In 2016, Toliya’s husband, with whom she had been married for 25 years, left her. He left her to fend for their six children alone. Devastated by the divorce and all the financial challenges that her new st...

Social Cash Transfer Programme “Mtukula Pakhomo” helping families prevent the spread of Cholera

In Nsamala village in Balaka district, the Social Cash Transfer Programme (SCTP), locally known as “ Mtukula Pakhomo ”, is enriching lives through Cholera prevention initiatives. No one illustrates this better than Titha Kwadelanji and Violet Mussa. Titha Kwadelanji a mother of six, from Kambadi village takes Chol...

Call centre helps Urban Cash Transfer beneficiaries

Chrissy Maulidi, 24, is a beneficiary of the Malawi Government COVID-19 Urban Cash Intervention (CUCI) initiative to support vulnerable households with a three-month subsistence allowance. She reflects on her experience using the services of the CUCI call centre. “The service was very good, and the operators were ...

22 December 2020

COVID-19 awareness campaign at social cash transfer pay points

The grass-thatched house owned by Bessina Phingo, 39, was ever deteriorating as rains would fall through the roof, leaving her and her family with soaked beddings. Things even got worse when she got divorced in 2016. She had to raise her family of four sons, aged between eight and 20 years. The future would have r...