Tobacco Processors Association (TPA), a grouping of four tobacco buying companies in the country, has donated relief items worth K43 million towards floods response to people on Chisi Island in Zomba.
TPA, which comprises Limbe Leaf Tobacco Company Limited (Limbe Leaf), Japan Tobacco International (JTI), Alliance One and Premium Tobacco and a United Kingdom-based Imperial Tobacco, made the donation to the Department of Disaster and Management Affairs (Dodma) at Zomba Airwing Base on Thursday.
TPA company secretary Febbie Chikungwa said the association was saddened by the loss of life and destruction of property after Cyclone Idai hit some Southern Region districts in early March.
She said: “As an association, we pooled our resources together and we raised K44 million. We used K43 million to buy the relief items and the remainder on logistics on getting the items to the flood victims.
“Nobody prepares for a disaster. Those affected by this disaster lost their property and that is why we felt we should help so that they have basic needs as they start rebuilding their lives.”
Receiving the donation, Minister of Homeland Security Nicholas Dausi thanked TPA for the gesture.
“It is coming at a time when people affected by the floods are starting to rebuild their lives. We ask other companies to emulate this good example,” he said.
Dausi indicated that the relief items, which included food and non-food items such as rice, maize flour, kapenta, beans, Likuni Phala, milk, cooking oil, blankets, plastic sheets, kitchen utensils and mosquito nets, would be airlifted to Chisi Island by Malawi Army helicopters.
After the presentation at Zomba Airwing Base, officials from TPA, Dodma and journalists flew to the island to appreciate how the flood victims were fairing. n
