250 Houses Ready For Handover To Cyclone Freddy Survivors.
The Malawi Red Cross Society expects to have finalized the construction of 250 new houses ready for handover to Cyclone Freddy survivors in the Southern region by November 30 this year.
This has been disclosed by Cecilia Banda, who is Acting Head of disaster management at the Malawi Red Cross Society during a media briefing held on 30th October 2023.
Banda told journalists in Chiradzulu that various stakeholders have been committing themselves to constructing houses for the cyclone victims who lost their property early this year.
She said some of the houses which will be handed over to the cyclone survivors are those that have been constructed under the initiative championed by Malawi’s former presidents Bakili Muluzi and Joyce Banda in their capacity as goodwill ambassadors.
The districts benefitting from this initiative are Phalombe, Chiradzulu, Blantyre and Zomba. The construction of the houses is at an advanced stage.
“We are building houses through the funding mobilized by the Goodwill Trust,” said Banda.
“We are constructing 52 houses in Phalombe, 30 houses in Zomba, and in Chiradzulu, we are constructing another 30 houses with funding from PMI and the Press Trust. We are making progress, and we are happy,” she added.
She, however, lamented that the process of relocating people from disaster-prone areas to safe places has been an uphill task.
Banda said most people do not easily accept moving from their risky permanent homes and to other safer places, but she was quick to applaud the progress made so far in convincing the victims.
Early this year, Cyclone Freddy hit various parts of the Southern region resulting into loss of people’s lives and property as many victims were displaced and temporarily housed in public schools and other public institutions.
