60-year-old Severiano Phinifolo, from Wayisoni Village in the area of Tradition Authority Mduwa in Mchinji, and his 51-year-old wife, Magadalena, who both have physical disabilities, are living in desperate and impoverished conditions and are looking for well-wishers to bail them out.
The couple lacks proper house as they stay in a small shack made of reeds and thatched with grass. Due to the physical disabilities, Severiano is confined to a wheelchair and Magadalena relies on crutches, leading to mobility struggles.
According to Phinifolo, their daily struggle for survival has forced them to depend on begging and the sporadic piecework the wife can manage.
However, she is now growing weak, as she feels pain on the scars she got when she gave birth to her two children years back.
“We only eat once, that is in the evening when going to sleep; we do not have proper place to sleep as we sleep on the floor which becomes wet in rainy season. It is tough, but we manage somehow,” said Phinifolo.
Adding to their burdens, the couple is also the caretaker of their granddaughter, Yankho, who heads off to school on an empty stomach each day at Chitunda Primary School.
“My daughter trekked to Zambia and we never heard from her but she left us her child who we are staying with in these poor conditions. She goes to school on an empty stomach, she is used like that,” said Magadalena.
Severiano, in desperation, crafts wooden sieves in an attempt to sustain the family, though the business is far from being prosperous.
One of the couple’s two children is studying law at University of Malawi but despite him bringing hope there is nothing the couple can do to support, leaving him to fend for himself and rely on other well-wishers.
Despite the challenges, the couple is not enrolled in any social support programmes as they missed out on Agriculture Input Programme (AIP) and Social Cash Transfer (SCT).
Principal Social Welfare Officer Emmanuel Gerevazio said: “For now all we can ask for is support from well-wishers while we are looking for ways of how to respond to the situation. On having the couple on SCT, the programme enrollment process is very much rigorous; there are thousands of ultra-poor households in Mchinji and only a few have access.”
SCT beneficiaries are drawn from the Universal Beneficiary Registry (UBR), which makes it difficult just to enroll anyone into the programme.
Village Head Wayisoni said as a village, they feel for the family, adding despite its empathy, the village is grappling with its own difficulties this year, relying on mangoes that are dwindling in supply.
“No one in this village qualified for AIP, and most of the people have no food resorting to only eating once, so there is nothing we can do too; they need well-wishers,” said Village Head Wayisoni.
The couple’s aspirations are a stable source of food, a proper dwelling place, and support for their granddaughter’s education and, at the moment, they extend a hand to well-wishers who can bail them from dire poverty.
By Vincent Khonje
