3 million in Malawi will need food supplies to stay alive

MALAWI: An estimated three million Malawians will next month need food supplies to stay alive, an Irish nun, working in the country since 1980, said yesterday.

Sister Mary Doonan, from Drogheda, Co Louth, said that about another 70 per cent of the population would need subsidies to buy good because of inadequate incomes. "The best help we can get at the moment from Irish people is hard cash," she said.

Sister Mary, who is home on leave from Malawi, said that contributions could be sent to the Medical Missionaries of Mary, Rosemount, Booterstown, Dublin, or lodged in the Bank of Ireland, Merrion Road, Dublin 4.

Sister Catherine Dwyer, leader of the Medical Missionaries of Mary in Malawi, said the money currently being contributed by Irish people was making a difference in the face of the food crisis.

"The money is being spent to purchase maize, beans and milk. It is costing us €5,000 a month to maintain the food programme at Chipini health centre in the south of Malawi. Trocaire has assisted us with that programme," she added.

Sister Cecily Bourdillon, a medical doctor who is co-ordinator of primary health care at the health centre run by the Medical Missionaries of Mary at Chipini, said that the signs of famine became evident earlier this year. "We were seeing children with kwashiorkor, the severest form of malnutrition."