2,4mln People To Receive Food Aid From Government Until March

By Bindura Bureau

About 2.4 million people in the country are currently receiving food aid from government according to information obtained by Nhau/Indaba from the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Monday.

The ongoing programme will provisionally cater for the identified population until March. Each person will be getting at least 10kg of maize every month during the period.

Cumulatively for the three months, government is expecting to have handed out at least 72,884,84 tonnes.

So far Midlands, Mashonaland West and Manicaland provinces have the largest numbers of people benefitting from the programme.

Midlands province has a targeted population of 398 435 while 388 145 are targeted in Mashonaland West and 358 004 in Manicaland.

In Mashonaland Central, the government programme is targeting 222 302 people and is expecting to deliver 6 669.05 tonnes by March.

So far, distributions for January are ongoing in the province with Bindura, Guruve, Mbire and Muzarabani areas having received their rations through the Drought Relief Programme.

To ease the burden on government, other international humanitarian organisations have added their input to feed the remaining population.

These include the World Food Programme (WFP) which is catering for nearly 584 986 others across the country.

According to data from the Social Welfare department, the WFP is catering for people across nine districts countrywide namely Buhera, Mt Darwin, Hwedza, Mudzi, Bikita, Chivi, Bubi, Nkayi and Mangwe. Nhau/Indaba