Social Cash Transfer bails out elderly people

Elderly people in Kasungu District have commended the Social Cash Transfer Programme, popularly known as Mtukula Pakhomo, for improving their livelihoods.

They said this on Monday in random interviews.

Seventy four-year-old Ekisilida Mwase from Sub-Traditional Authority Chisikwa said she was taking care of six grandchildren and her husband.

“Previously, I was struggling to pay school fund and fees for my grandchildren, but now the situation has improved,” she said.

Mwase said she invested the proceedings from the programme into livestock farming.

Another beneficiary, Dorase Phiri, 70, said she constructed a decent house using the proceeds from the programme.

“I joined a village savings and loans group to save the money. After sharing the dividends, I bought iron sheets for my house,” she said.

The area’s Grain House Cluster Social Cash Transfer Programme Committee secretary Christopher Banda said the programme has supported most elderly-headed families.

“The elderly can buy cheap farm inputs under Affordable Inputs Programme.

“As a result, their families are food-secure.”

Kasungu district social welfare officer Raphael Chitete said the programme has helped the elderly to get basic needs.

“The programme has proved helpful to some elderly people with disabilities,” he said.

Chitete said the programme is targeting 16 946 beneficiaries in the district.

The Social Cash Transfer Programme is an intervention which provides cash transfers to 10 percent of ultra-poor and labour-constrained households, including extra money for households with school-going children in a district.

With funding from the World Bank, the programme is implemented by the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare in the district.