GOVT TO HAND OUT FOOD PARCELS TO VULNERABLE

MBABANE - The extremely vulnerable and hard-hit citizens will get food parcels from government.
This was revealed by the Social Protection Task Team Chairman, Khanya Mabuza, when engaged on what government’s contingency plan was to assist the most vulnerable at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said if the situation turned to be dire in terms of food, they would be distributing food parcels that would comprise basic foods such as starch and proteins.
“We have to look at the severity of the situation, if it is making people poor, then we have to look into what extent it is doing so. For instance, poverty has been there but we expect additional numbers because of the situation on the ground. We also then have to look at the mitigation plans that we can do on the affected people. It is not only food but social support and counselling that we aim to provide,” he said.

Depression

Mabuza said because of loss of trade, the economy would be adversely affected and there would be a lot of depression, hence the current number of people who are vulnerable will increase because some have already lost employment while they have children to support.

“What we need to do as a task team is to give the extremely vulnerable priority because government does not have enough funds for the initiative,” he said.
Mabuza said they would first make an assessment on the situation before commencing with distribution of the food parcels.

He said currently they were ensuring that children had food and the team was monitoring national care points (NCPs) to establish if they had any and if not, they would be scaling up the distribution of food through the World Food Programme (WFP) to those communities. Mabuza said the task team was also looking at the elderly as they were more vulnerable in the winter season and even post winter and they wanted to ensure that the elderly were kept warm by seeking donations and buying blankets for them.

“We will look at communities where the weather will be chilly and the elderly in those areas will be prioritised.
 “There is a plan that we have to support the elderly. We are not shy that post the COVID-19 crisis, there are high chances that there will be shortage of food and we are raising funds to ensure that those who will be affected are well taken care of in terms of getting the basics and we are looking for an extended assistance of two years from now,” he said.

Protection

Mabuza said apart from the help of food and other basic needs, the team was looking into the social protection aspect, the economy which would be heavily depressed and would have bad repercussions on the wellbeing of the citizens.
Mabuza said they were relying on internal assistance through the Resource Mobilisation team and beyond through organisations like the World Food Programme.

Meanwhile, World Vision Eswatini and partners have already channelled over E15 million in helping the most vulnerable. This was confirmed by the organisation’s Country Director, Francis Dube. Some of the things that the organisation has already done is provide over E650 000 worth of PPE  and Information, Education and Communication material to the Ministry of Health, expended E1 million on a joint initiative with Esicojeni Foundation, based on a 50-50 funding agreement.

Dube said that at this stage, it was difficult to say how much would be available but rather focus was on reprogramming some already availed funds and to redirect these to COVID-19.
“We are engaging different donors who have demonstrated a strong willingness to approve budget reallocations and do expect an additional E14 million in existing resources to be channelled to COVID-19 response.”

Funding

Dube said given that this funding was already allocated for specific geographical locations (Tinkhundla), the use of reprogramming funding would be limited to communities currently targeted by World Vision operations.
“Our teams are currently working with regional teams to determine the priorities of these regions in question,” he said.

Dube said the organisations noted the uneven distribution of information on COVID-19 with highly vulnerable populations in the peripheral ends of the country seriously challenged in getting information through radio, TV, newspapers and other social media platforms. He said information around social distancing, washing of hands and staying at home was key to making a difference between staying healthy (protection from infection) and being infected by COVID-19.

“Equally we are cognisant of the fact that hand-washing messages are only as good as communities have access to clean water and will not make sense to communities without water. Our programme interventions are therefore prioritising awareness, hand-washing, clean water supply and soap and sanitisers distribution for needy populations,” he submitted.

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