A Return to Malawi - Cyclone Freddy Response

Cyclone Freddy made landfall in Southern Malawi on March 12,2023.  For the second time. It started its first pass over southern Africa on February 21, but then quickly weakened once it hit the mainland. We happened to be in Malawi at the time, and shared a huge sense of relief with everyone else that it had caused much less damage than what was originally anticipated. Unfortunately – Cyclone Freddy wasn’t done yet. It regained its strength, and re-emerged over the Mozambique Channel on March 1, continuing to grow in intensity. By the time it was done, Cyclone Freddy would gain the distinction of being the longest lasting and highest energy tropical storm ever recorded worldwide.

Flooding in Nsanje – Photo Credit-Malawi Red Cross Society

Malawi - still recovering from what seems like a steady series of cyclones and tropical storms since 2019 – was the hardest hit of the nations in Freddy’s path. The storm led to floods and mudslides, washing away entire communities, and wiping out crops, livestock, and anything else in its path.  Over 1,200 Malawians died as a result of the storm, and the government of Malawi has reported that more than 650,000 people were displaced.

Blantyre, Malawi – Photo Credit UNICEF Malawi2023 Corporate Media

World Renew has an extensive history of supporting disaster response initiatives in Malawi. Through collaboration with 2 local partners – Word Alive Commission for Relief and Development, and Eagles Relief and Development – two separate project proposals were quickly developed. With funding support from the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, World Renew is working with Word Alive and Eagles to provide food assistance and livelihood interventions to regions within the Chikwawa and Phalombe districts – 2 of the areas hardest hit by Cyclone Freddy.

Mulilima Distribution - Beneficiary Verification

The projects are multi faceted – providing immediate food assistance through 6 monthly cash transfers that will empower those impacted by the floods to make the best food purchase decisions for their families – but also providing seeds, livestock (goats), creating Village Savings and Loan Associations, and providing training in conservation agriculture, livestock health, business management, and disaster risk reduction. The project is supporting over 8,000 people from approximately 1,500 households.

Pre-distribution Community Meeting – Phweremwe, Phalombe District

The first of the monthly distributions took place in October, and were supported by Carl van der Boom and Clare Streutker – International Relief Manager (IRM) colleagues of ours from Canada who were in Malawi from the end of August through November. They did an excellent job in building relationships with our partners, vendors, local authorities and community members – and establishing the processes that we will continue to follow. They made it very easy for us to hit the ground running.

Mulilima Distribution - Cash Transfer

Post-distribution with Matilda and some of our Eagles partners

We left home on January 11,  arriving in Malawi 2 days later – leaving behind -40C temperatures in Edmonton, and arriving to a tropical 28C in Lilongwe - and the middle of the rainy season. 4 days later we would be in Chikwawa – with temperatures approaching 40C, and requiring just a bit of an adjustment for our winter conditioned bodies.

After arriving in Lilongwe, we met with Matilda Okech – World Renew Disaster Response Manager for Africa, and Lemon Chipwatali – World Renew Country Director for Malawi. We joined them on the 5-hour drive to Blantyre, which will be our home base for the duration of the project. We have worked with both Matilda and Lemon in the past, and consider it a wonderful opportunity to do so once again. Our first week was very busy – meeting with the leadership teams of both Word Alive and Eagles at their offices, and participating in cash distributions at 4 different distribution sites – Masache, Ngabu, Mulilima, and Phweremwe.

Beneficiaries travel up to 18 km to get to the distribution site - the fortunate ones have bikes!

Feedback Review Meeting at Mulilima with Community members and Partner staff

We sat in on feedback review sessions

with the community committees that are supporting the distributions. And we were once again reminded as to why Malawi is known as “the warm heart of Africa”. The enthusiastic welcomes, incredibly beautiful song and dance, the big Malawian smiles, and the friendly “Muli Bwanji” and customary handshake that is part of every greeting. And this time there was an added emotional connection – two of the communities that are part of this project were also part of our last IRM assignment in 2022. It was truly special to be able to reconnect with many of the community members that we had worked with previously – the reunions were quite moving for us. At the same time, this was a reminder that these same people had lost everything once again. Yet they remain positive, and resilient, and strong. They are truly inspiring.

Happy Reunion - working again with Annette - a community committee member from our last IRM assignment in Malawi in 2022