Malawi Refugees Food Aid USAGM
Metadata
- Malawi Refugees Food Aid USAGM
- February 17, 2022
- Malawi-Hosted Refugees Question WFP De-listing from Food Rations
- Content Type Package
- Language English
- Transcript/Script English USAGM SHARE ((PLAYBOOK SLUG: MALAWI REFUGEES FOOD AID HEADLINE: Malawi-Hosted Refugees Question WFP De-listing from Food Rations TEASER: The country’s program stopped giving food rations to nearly 700 refugee families citing funding limits and refugees found to be “self-sustaining” PUBLISHED AT: Thursday, 02/17/2022 at 1:05 pm BYLINE: Lameck Masina DATELINE: DOWA DISTRICT, MALAWI VIDEOGRAPHER: Lameck Masina VIDEO EDITOR/PRODUCER: Marcus Harton SCRIPT EDITORS: Schearf, Salem Solomon VIDEO SOURCE (S): All VOA PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV X RADIO X VID APPROVED BY: BR TRT: 3:10 TYPE: TVPKGN EDITOR NOTES: Photos for the web available. There is an accompanying radio piece.)) ((INTRO)) [[The U.N. World Food Program in Malawi has for the first time stopped giving food rations to nearly 700 refugee families in the country’s only refugee camp citing funding limits and refugees found to be “self-sustaining.” But many of the de-listed refugees say they rely on the monthly rations and argue the assessment process is flawed. Lameck Masina reports from Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Dowa district, Malawi.]] ((NARRATOR)) Mapendo Neema, her seven children, and an unemployed husband have been relying on monthly food rations at Malawi’s Dzaleka refugee camp since 2016. They fled a rebel attack in the Democratic Republic of Congo that she says left her a rape survivor and her parents dead. But earlier this month the U.N.’s World Food Program removed nearly 700 families at the camp from a list of refugees receiving food aid, leaving Neem and her family struggling to get by. ((Mapendo Neema, Refugee)) ((Kibembe, 24 secs)) “For example, these children haven’t eaten anything since morning because of lack of food. And how do you think I will get the food to feed them in the absence of the food ration we receive from WFP? I just feel like my family is buried alive, really.” ((NARRATOR)) The WFP says it was forced to remove the families from receiving food rations after a 2020 assessment. Country Director Paul Turnbull says funding limitations and rising number of refugees forced them to target only the most vulnerable. ((Paul Turnbull, World Food Program Country Director)) ((English, 18 secs)) “There are many refugees here in Malawi who have been here a long time. They have found ways and means of making a living. So, we have done, an assessment and we have found a group of those people who are food insecure and those people who are not.” ((NARRATOR)) Malawi’s Dzaleka camp was designed to accommodate 10,000 refugees but has grown to house 58,000, mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, and Ethiopia. But some of those de-listed argue the assessment process was flawed because over half of those removed from food rations are poor and jobless. ((Raphael Ndabaga, Refugee)) ((English, __secs)) “Okay, with me you see the kind of house I am living in. My cement is broken, I can’t even have money, I cannot even buy cement! Yet, I need money for food for my kids.” ((NARRATOR)) The WFP says it will soon start hearing appeals from those who believe were wrongly taken off food rations. ((Paul Turnbull, WFP Country Director, (English, 14 secs)) “There are some conditions that we have in terms of economic vulnerability; changes in the breadwinner in the family; those sorts of things will be used to judge whether the people should go back into the list or not.” ((NARRATOR)) But some of the refugee families, like Neema’s, are skeptical. ((Mapendo Neema, DRC Refugee, (Kibembe, 23 secs)) “They told me that their decision is final and, if anything, they would start hearing complaints after three months.” ((NARRATOR)) Meanwhile, WFP officials say refugees delisted from food rations will still benefit from all other non-food assistance at the camp, such as access to healthcare and opportunities for resettlement. ((Lameck Masina, for VOA news, Dowa district, Malawi))
- Transcript/Script USAGM SHARE ((PLAYBOOK SLUG: MALAWI REFUGEES FOOD AID HEADLINE: Malawi-Hosted Refugees Question WFP De-listing from Food Rations TEASER: The country’s program stopped giving food rations to nearly 700 refugee families citing funding limits and refugees found to be “self-sustaining” PUBLISHED AT: Thursday, 02/17/2022 at 1:05 pm BYLINE: Lameck Masina DATELINE: DOWA DISTRICT, MALAWI VIDEOGRAPHER: Lameck Masina VIDEO EDITOR/PRODUCER: Marcus Harton SCRIPT EDITORS: Schearf, Salem Solomon VIDEO SOURCE (S): All VOA PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV X RADIO X VID APPROVED BY: BR TRT: 3:10 TYPE: TVPKGN EDITOR NOTES: Photos for the web available. There is an accompanying radio piece.)) ((INTRO)) [[The U.N. World Food Program in Malawi has for the first time stopped giving food rations to nearly 700 refugee families in the country’s only refugee camp citing funding limits and refugees found to be “self-sustaining.” But many of the de-listed refugees say they rely on the monthly rations and argue the assessment process is flawed. Lameck Masina reports from Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Dowa district, Malawi.]] ((NARRATOR)) Mapendo Neema, her seven children, and an unemployed husband have been relying on monthly food rations at Malawi’s Dzaleka refugee camp since 2016. They fled a rebel attack in the Democratic Republic of Congo that she says left her a rape survivor and her parents dead. But earlier this month the U.N.’s World Food Program removed nearly 700 families at the camp from a list of refugees receiving food aid, leaving Neem and her family struggling to get by. ((Mapendo Neema, Refugee)) ((Kibembe, 24 secs)) “For example, these children haven’t eaten anything since morning because of lack of food. And how do you think I will get the food to feed them in the absence of the food ration we receive from WFP? I just feel like my family is buried alive, really.” ((NARRATOR)) The WFP says it was forced to remove the families from receiving food rations after a 2020 assessment. Country Director Paul Turnbull says funding limitations and rising number of refugees forced them to target only the most vulnerable. ((Paul Turnbull, World Food Program Country Director)) ((English, 18 secs)) “There are many refugees here in Malawi who have been here a long time. They have found ways and means of making a living. So, we have done, an assessment and we have found a group of those people who are food insecure and those people who are not.” ((NARRATOR)) Malawi’s Dzaleka camp was designed to accommodate 10,000 refugees but has grown to house 58,000, mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, and Ethiopia. But some of those de-listed argue the assessment process was flawed because over half of those removed from food rations are poor and jobless. ((Raphael Ndabaga, Refugee)) ((English, __secs)) “Okay, with me you see the kind of house I am living in. My cement is broken, I can’t even have money, I cannot even buy cement! Yet, I need money for food for my kids.” ((NARRATOR)) The WFP says it will soon start hearing appeals from those who believe were wrongly taken off food rations. ((Paul Turnbull, WFP Country Director, (English, 14 secs)) “There are some conditions that we have in terms of economic vulnerability; changes in the breadwinner in the family; those sorts of things will be used to judge whether the people should go back into the list or not.” ((NARRATOR)) But some of the refugee families, like Neema’s, are skeptical. ((Mapendo Neema, DRC Refugee, (Kibembe, 23 secs)) “They told me that their decision is final and, if anything, they would start hearing complaints after three months.” ((NARRATOR)) Meanwhile, WFP officials say refugees delisted from food rations will still benefit from all other non-food assistance at the camp, such as access to healthcare and opportunities for resettlement. ((Lameck Masina, for VOA news, Dowa district, Malawi))
- NewsML Media Topics Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
- Network VOA
- Embargo Date February 17, 2022 13:30 EST
- Byline Lameck Masina
- Brand / Language Service Voice of America