News / Regional
Villagers in Binga to get $35 monthly food allowances
21 Aug 2015 at 01:27hrs | Views
LESS privileged villagers in Binga District are set to receive monthly food allowances of up to $35 from a non-governmental organisation for a period of eight months starting this month, Chronicle reported.
The district administrator Lydia Banda said Save the Children, a non-governmental organisation with interest in child rights and welfare, has made the offer to pay between $10 to $35 to the elderly and children by month end. "The programme is currently at its initial phase where beneficiaries from the targeted wards are undergoing the registration process.
"The primary targets are families without adequate food and labour. Families without labour are those families with no members aged between 18 and 60 years. This encompassing most children and the elderly who are over 60 years," said Banda.
She said the programme will be conducted in form of unconditional cash transfers via Eco-cash mobile cash transfer platform. In areas that have no mobile phone network coverage, a cash in transit system will be used.
Banda said the money was intended to enable beneficiaries to buy food that include maize, sorghum and millet from the local markets. "The amount to be given out has been determined by market prices of maize, cooking oil and legumes. A household of one person receives $10, while a household of two people gets $14, three people get $21, four people get $28 and the maximum is five people per household getting $35," she said.
Banda said there were four targeted wards allocated by the Binga Rural District Council's social services committee.
"These include Siachilaba, Kalungwizi, Chunga and Siansundu. The objective of the project is to save lives and improve household and communities' capacity to cope with food scarcity shocks through cash handouts and training on asset management, conservation farming and nutrition," she said.
This food security intervention is in response to the results of the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (Zimvac) report of 2015. "The report indicates that at peak hunger period, over 1,4 million people will be food insecure where Binga is one of the worst affected districts," said Banda.
Save the Children's advisor in charge of advocacy and communication, Sophie Hamandishe said the organisation was continuing to fundraise for the cash transfer project to also extend to Hwange and Gokwe districts during the second and third phase of the programme.
"We anticipate that when at full scale, the cash transfer programme will benefit 7,500 households in Binga, Hwange and Gokwe South districts through unconditional and conditional cash transfers," said Hamandishe
Save the Children has been carrying out similar programmes dating back to October 2014 to May 2015 and it has successfully implemented cash for work programme in Binga and Nyaminyami (Kariba rural) districts.
The programme benefitted a total of 6,750 food insecure households with a combined total of more than 33,000 beneficiaries. The works were conducted in partnership with the rural district council, veterinary services and Agritex in the two districts.
The district administrator Lydia Banda said Save the Children, a non-governmental organisation with interest in child rights and welfare, has made the offer to pay between $10 to $35 to the elderly and children by month end. "The programme is currently at its initial phase where beneficiaries from the targeted wards are undergoing the registration process.
"The primary targets are families without adequate food and labour. Families without labour are those families with no members aged between 18 and 60 years. This encompassing most children and the elderly who are over 60 years," said Banda.
She said the programme will be conducted in form of unconditional cash transfers via Eco-cash mobile cash transfer platform. In areas that have no mobile phone network coverage, a cash in transit system will be used.
Banda said the money was intended to enable beneficiaries to buy food that include maize, sorghum and millet from the local markets. "The amount to be given out has been determined by market prices of maize, cooking oil and legumes. A household of one person receives $10, while a household of two people gets $14, three people get $21, four people get $28 and the maximum is five people per household getting $35," she said.
Banda said there were four targeted wards allocated by the Binga Rural District Council's social services committee.
"These include Siachilaba, Kalungwizi, Chunga and Siansundu. The objective of the project is to save lives and improve household and communities' capacity to cope with food scarcity shocks through cash handouts and training on asset management, conservation farming and nutrition," she said.
This food security intervention is in response to the results of the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (Zimvac) report of 2015. "The report indicates that at peak hunger period, over 1,4 million people will be food insecure where Binga is one of the worst affected districts," said Banda.
Save the Children's advisor in charge of advocacy and communication, Sophie Hamandishe said the organisation was continuing to fundraise for the cash transfer project to also extend to Hwange and Gokwe districts during the second and third phase of the programme.
"We anticipate that when at full scale, the cash transfer programme will benefit 7,500 households in Binga, Hwange and Gokwe South districts through unconditional and conditional cash transfers," said Hamandishe
Save the Children has been carrying out similar programmes dating back to October 2014 to May 2015 and it has successfully implemented cash for work programme in Binga and Nyaminyami (Kariba rural) districts.
The programme benefitted a total of 6,750 food insecure households with a combined total of more than 33,000 beneficiaries. The works were conducted in partnership with the rural district council, veterinary services and Agritex in the two districts.
Source - Chronicle
