The Head of International Development for Caritas Australia, Jamie Davies has expressed satisfaction over the way Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (CADECOM) has been implementing a five year Australia Africa Community Engagement Scheme (AACES) project.
Davies was speaking when she visited several pro-poor interventions including Water Sanitation and Hygiene, Agriculture, Nutrition and Food Security and Small Scale Irrigation among others in the area of group village headmen Litepo 1 and Nankumba, Traditional Authority Chakhadza in Dowa.
CADECOM National Secretary, Carsterns Mulume said so far over 21 boreholes have been drilled in Dowa district and that they have also promoted household hygiene and sanitation using the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach.
On Agriculture, Nutrition and Food Security Intervention, Mulume said despite the country registering low maize production, the AACES program beneficiaries, who adopted the modern agriculture techniques imparted on them have harvested better crops compared to areas where the program is not implemented.
“CADECOM has also helped the communities to realize some of the assets, which were latent in the area. The project triggered the communities to start making use of the water available in the villages for irrigation,” he said.
Secretary General for the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM), Fr. Henry Saindi said the Catholic Church does not only look at the spiritual aspect of a human being rather it also take care of the human development of a person hence the reason its development arm, CADECOM has been championing this drive.
Fr. Saindi said the Church encourages Community involvement in all its undertakings on the ground so that project initiatives that are being rendered become a success because there is always a room for ownership, management and monitoring.
According to Davies, her impression was basically on how the communities have been imparted with knowledge and skills in implementing project activities.
“I am impressed particularly with community participation especially women involvement, traditional leaders and the way government officials have been supporting the project. You could really see changes in production, access to safe water and people’s attitude towards improving their living standards,” she said.
Davies said the project’s main aim was to see communities which are more marginalized and that they are resilient hence Malawi has managed to achieve this as compared to other countries where a similar project is implemented.
The AACES Program which is a livelihood improvement program focuses on food security, water, hygiene and sanitation with emphasis on increasing access to services by the marginalized is being implemented in Mzuzu diocese and Lilongwe and Blantyre Archdioceses.
Other mainstreaming activities include; gender, HIV and AIDS, child protection, village savings and loans, disaster preparedness and management, Natural resource management and promotion of Income generating activities.