Feeding Children in Mtsiliza, Malawi
POSTED ON Mar 25, 2010 / UPDATED ON Jan 27, 2011
COTN child enjoys a meal provided by the feeding center.
Children eagerly gather at the feeding center in Mtsiliza.
Women bake bread in Mtsiliza for a meal.
Pitching in to wash dishes afer a meal
Jailos Lungu sits in a dark room lined with shelved bags of rice as a mob of children rushes toward the room next door for their afternoon meal. Jailos oversees the Children of the Nations (COTN) feeding center in the village of Mtsiliza in Malawi.
“The program is designed for the children,” said Jailos, as he shared a plate of nsima (Malawi’s staple food) and meat with his son. Children always get rice or nsima, along with cabbage, fish, or beans, unless it’s Friday—Friday is meat day,” Jailos says.
The food grown and purchased in Malawi that is used for COTN’s feeding center in Mtsiliza is paired with food that is packaged and paid for by volunteers in the US. Dave Spoon, COTN’s Washington State Feeding Coordinator, explains what is in the dried packets that are shipped over to each country by the thousands: “A cup of lentils, a cup of rice, a few tablespoons of a chicken powder that has a multivitamin, and a scoop of dehydrated vegetables with spices for flavoring,” he said. “This goes into one bag and, based on caloric intake, represents six meals.”
Jailos clearly remembers the 2002 drought in Malawi when many died of starvation. On one drive to the Kasungu district, where COTN’s Chiwengo Children’s Homes are located, Jailos saw 80 people dead. “Children were dead. Parents were dead. Children had just been thrown away—neglected by their parents,” he said.
Now, even Mtsiliza children with no parents receive much-needed nutrients through COTN’s feeding program. “This food is just so necessary. If the children don’t have good nutrition, then they can’t learn and they can’t grow,” Dave said. “Along the way, we’re mobilizing people in the United States to get involved with COTN—they never knew who we were before. Their hearts are turned on to do more than just package food afterwards.”
More than 500 children receive a meal every afternoon in Mtsiliza. That number includes 250 children between ages 2 and 10 who also receive breakfast daily. Some of these children are orphans. Others may not receive enough food, even if they are lucky enough to have one or both parents. “Some children eat here, and that’s the only meal they get,” Jailos said. “They [count on] the feeding center like it’s their mother.”
Last summer, COTN enrolled four dying children in the Mtsiliza Village Partnership Program. They were close to death from starvation and malnutrition. Just two weeks later they were looking more nourished due to daily feeding. “With COTN, those coming into the program have survived,” Jailos said.
The program lifted a burden of the four children’s father, as he was also very sick. Now he can eat because the children receive food from COTN. “It is very important for the betterment of the children who are orphaned or needy,” Jailos said. “Without COTN’s feeding center most of these kids could have lost their lives.”
For more information on participating “hands-on” to help feed children in Malawi and the other countries COTN partners with click here.