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GOOD PEOPLE,GOOD WORKS
UNICEF’s Social Cash Transfer Program: Providing Hope for Malawians
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The Malawian people,
they enjoy life.
And although there is
hardship they face
in the villages, they have
a lot of zest for life
and a lot of endurance.
They are very resilient.
The children are so
beautiful. They are joyful.
They have beautiful smiles.
They are just wonderful
to work for.
Warm greetings,
thoughtful viewers,
and welcome to
this week’s edition of
Good People, Good Works.
Today we travel to the
southeast African nation
of Malawi to
learn about some of the
life transforming changes
occurring in communities
thanks to an initiative
that is creating new
opportunities and hope
for the disadvantaged.
Rita Nelesoni
is a single mother
with five children and
is physically challenged.
She’s among some of
the thousands of female
headed households
that benefit from
the Social Cash Transfer
program in her area.
My life now has greatly
improved for the better.
The best part is that
my children
are now living happily.
I can provide
for food and clothes
for the whole month.
The children
are also going to school
without problems and they
are also working hard.
The children are
no longer malnourished
as food is now enough
for the whole family.
The program was
initiated in 2006 by
the Malawian government
with the technical support
of the United Nations
Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) and financing
from the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria.
My name is
Mayke Huijbregts,
I’m from Holland.
I have been in Malawi
for almost five years now.
And I came to the country
to develop an action plan
to scale up response
to orphans
and vulnerable children.
And then from there,
we mobilized funding
from the Global Fund
into the country,
up to US$19 million.
The cash assistance
is provided
on a monthly basis
and is uplifting thousands
of Malawian households
by enabling them to
obtain basic necessities.
Since April 2006,
we designed and tested
this instrument
of Social Cash Transfers,
and in the meantime now,
this scheme is run in
seven districts, reaching
25,000 households,
and 100,000 people,
and 50,000 children.
And we have evaluated it,
and learned through
that evaluation that
the cash impacted well
on the health status of
the household members,
especially the children.
That 80% more
were seeking healthcare,
but also that 80% of
the household members
reported to really
feel well and healthy.
But also, we saw
a very big improvement
in nutrition status
of the children, especially
(the prevalence of)
wasting and underweight
had really dropped
drastically
in a period of one year,
and chronic malnutrition
also was stifled.
So, we have really seen
that the cash has
contributed to food security
and food diversity.
Also we have seen
that households invest
in assets for agriculture.
So, they are using the funds
to improve their housing,
their hygiene
and their clothing.
So, there are children
in the beneficiary
households, they are now
going to school.
They went up
from one meal a day
to three meals a day.
And the enrollment rate
in the households
has improved
from 85% to 96%.
But not only that,
the retention rate
in the households
has been very good.
So, we have supported
the government to build
multiple partnerships,
in order to design, test,
implement and
evaluate the program.
And now we are hoping
to raise more awareness
and leverage
further resources
so that the scheme can be
consolidated, sustained,
but in the end, also
rolled out to the 10% of
the ultra poor households
and the labor constrained
in Malawi.
The Social Cash Transfer
program is part
of the United Nations
Children’s Fund’s
overall commitment
to improving the lives
of the next generation
of Africans.
UNICEF in Africa
is very much involved
in health services.
So that is early childhood
immunization,
to make sure that
children are immunized
from the age of five
and that they get vitamin
A supplementation,
and that they are
protected from malaria
by sleeping with bed nets.
Also our role
is to strengthen
the health services.
So that quality services
are being provided
in the hospitals
and the health centers.
And then our role
is to treat children
for malnutrition
through therapeutic and
supplementary feeding.
And our role is to
strengthen the quality
of education and to
also support access
to further enrollment,
life skills education,
girls’ education, and
child friendly schools.
And then we are striving
to advocate for higher
teacher/pupil ratio,
and improvement of
the classrooms, and also
build new classrooms.
And then, we are involved
in early childhood care
and development.
So the organization is
establishing community
based childcare centers,
where children under five
come for a meal,
and for play
and early stimulation
and motivation.
As part of its mission,
UNICEF also focuses on
providing compassionate
treatment and care to
children with HIV/AIDS
as well as on halting
the spread of the virus
through health-awareness
programs.
We are involved in
HIV/AIDS programming,
which is HIV prevention
by working with the youth
to inform them
how to protect themselves
as well as to provide
access to voluntary testing
and counseling services,
and prevent from mother
to child transmission.
But also UNICEF
has helped with the
procurement of drugs
into the country, like
ARVs (antiretrovirals)
and the access to treatment
has been rolled out now
countrywide, so
to all the health centers,
so people with HIV
can access these.
When we return, we’ll
continue our discussion
of the United Nations
Children’s Fund’s
benevolent work
in Malawi.
Please stay tuned
to Supreme Master
Television.
The most beautiful thing
about the Malawian
people, is that
they care for each other
in the community.
Welcome back to
Good People, Good Works
on Supreme Master
Television.
We are focusing on
the Social Cash Transfer
program initiated by
the Malawian government
with the technical support
of the United Nations
Children’s Fund
and financing
from the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria.
The project is transforming
the lives of Malawians
in need for the better.
Cash transfers is
an important instrument
of social protection.
It has a great
child protection element
which I think
is the core foundation
of any program.
And from there you link it
to access to education,
access to health,
access to proper nutrition
and complement it
with protection from
abuse and exploitation.
So child poverty reduction
needs to be taken
extremely seriously
because otherwise
children grow up
deprived of the material,
social and spiritual needs
which they need to survive,
grow and develop into
a healthy human being
in this world.
Beneficiaries of
the Social Cash Transfer
program include those
who are HIV positive, the
elderly, orphans, children
and households headed
by females, the elderly,
the chronically ill,
and children.
There was one child
headed household,
headed by Regina
and she has four sisters
to take care of.
And we found her at the
age of 14, all by herself
with her sisters.
And they were
not at school.
They were not fed well
and now she’s really
thrived because now they
have the school uniforms,
they have dresses
for church.
They have a nice house.
They have
three meals a day.
All the girls are in school.
They got the bicycles.
So you can imagine that
after two, three years
of investment,
this household
has really thrived.
Before we started
receiving this money,
we had many problems.
We didn’t have adequate
food and clothes,
our school attendance
were also very erratic
because we did not have
the resources,
things like notebooks
and clean clothes.
With this scheme,
we have experienced
a great change.
We now have uniforms.
We have food.
We are also able to
go to school every day.
We are much better now.
The program also enables
the elderly to care
for their grandchildren
who have been orphaned,
often because their
parents have passed away
from illness.
Such a household is called
a “labor-constrained”
household, which means
no adult is able to work
to support the family.
You see a grandmother
taking care
of many orphan children.
But she can
no longer work.
She’s 80 years old;
traumatized
because of the loss
of her own children and
then having to take care
of the orphan children
without any means.
So the fact that we can
empower the grandmother
to take care
of these children,
she feels more dignity
and she’s more happy.
So there is a little bit
of love returning
in those households
after a tough process
of mourning and grief
and that is very beautiful
to see.
So the beauty of
the program is that cash
has multiple outcomes
unlike food aid
or giving out clothes
because the households
themselves know very well
how to invest it and
to use it, which they use
in the best interest
of the children
in those households.
Education is crucial to
every society’s progress
and advancement.
The funds that
the households receive
have been making
a large difference
in academic performance.
But because
the children feel so proud
that their grandmother
or themselves are taking
care of themselves now,
their performance in class
has also improved,
because they have food
in their bellies, and
they feel taken care of,
so they can
concentrate much better.
My wish is that every
child can grow up and
access quality education.
And that they can access
secondary education so
that they can in the future
positively contribute to
the economic development
of the country.
So what my hope would be
is that a program like this
will be sustained
and rolled out
in order to make sure
that one million children
in those households,
get an opportunity
to go to school and
have proper nutrition,
but also feel cared for
by their state.
And my wish
for Malawi’s future
is to continue with
their economic growth
and prosperity
and to make sure it is
socially included growth.
So that everyone
has the equal right
to grow and develop into
a healthy human being,
equal to other children.
Today, with the Social
Cash Transfer program
in place,
many of the beneficiaries
are looking forward to
a brighter
and more secure future
for their families.
If the social cash transfer
scheme continues,
I wish I could
start my own business
to supplement
the family income
and that my children
can have a better life.
I also dream of
being independent.
Our heartfelt thanks
goes to
the Malawian government,
the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria,
and the United Nations
Children’s Fund
for significantly
enhancing the welfare
of many Malawians
through the Social
Cash Transfer program.
We would also like to
express our gratitude to
Mayke Huijbregts for
providing her perspective
on the program’s
implementation
in the country.
May this wonderful
project continue
to expand and soon
reach all those in need
in this beautiful
African nation.
For more details
on UNICEF Malawi,
please visit
www.unicef.org/infobycountry/malawi.html
Thank you,
affectionate viewers,
for joining us
on this edition of
Good People, Good Works.
Up next is
The World Around Us
after Noteworthy News.
May your days be filled
with the love and laughter.
Thus far in 2010,
there have been
six earthquakes of
magnitude 7 or greater,
with millions of lives
having been seriously
affected as a result.
Some of the largest
earthquakes occur
around the borders of
the great tectonic plates
that characterize
our planet.
And we just recently had
two of those earthquakes
on plate boundaries,
the earthquake in Haiti
and also the earthquake
in Chili.
How should we respond
during an earthquake?
There are good ways
to respond and there are
not so good ways
to respond.
I think the most
important thing that
people can understand
about earthquakes
is don’t run.
Be sure to watch Part 1
of “Earthquake Survival
with Dr. Jim Goltz,”
Wednesday, April 28
on Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home.
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