Mercy Mkandawire Family
Mercy Mkandawire Family
Community Name: Kaviyombo, Zulani
Village Name: Ndhlovu Village
Date Collected: July, 2024
Mercy Mkandawire (52), a widow, is living with her daughter Kinrose (27) who has a son (the young boy in the picture), her son Widson (30 not in the picture as he was in college), and her son Jailos (25 who is seated) in a grass-thatched, brick-walled, and clay-floored house (see below). The average CHIEF (Character, Health, Income, Education, and Food Security) score for this household is 1.2 in a 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) scale.
Transformation Plan
Mercy dreams of having enough food to feed her family the whole year. She and her children need to be trained and helped with fertilizer and seed to improve their agricultural production. Pamoza needs to facilitate character change and train them in primary health care and income generation. Pamoza will also involve Widson on how he could best use his education for improving lives in his family.
Family CHIEF Assessment Summary
Character Assessment Score = 1
Mercy attends Church every Sunday but does not participate in Bible Study, prayer and fellowship meetings, or any other Christian activities. She will be encouraged to attend these activities.
Health Assessment score = 1
The household has a pit latrine and clothes drying line. Widson is frequently ill, at least once a month. Pamoza will train the family on the need of primary health care facilities and will encourage the family to construct them.
Income Assessment score = 1
The household has access to 16 acres of land, which, if utilized well, could not only produce enough food but some surplus that can be sold. There is no surplus production hence no income from farming. Their other source of income is ganyu - labor used on other people’s farms instead of investing it on their farm. Ganyu ends up trapping the household into cycles of poverty.
Education Assessment score = 2
The household has access to 16 acres of land, which, if utilized well, could not only produce enough food but some surplus that can be sold. There is no surplus production hence no income from farming. Their other source of income is ganyu - labor used on other people’s farms instead of investing it on their farm. Ganyu ends up trapping the household into cycles of poverty.
Food Security Assessment score = 1
Of the 16 acres of land Mercy’s household has, she cultivated just an acre during the 2023 - 2024 agricultural season, putting half an acre to maize, the staple food crop. The maize she harvested will last 3 months. Thereafter, she will depend on providing ganyu, labor offered to other families (instead of investing the labor in her farm), which ends up trapping the household into cycles of food insecurity. Mercy will need training in improved agricultural practices along with some help with fertilizers and improved seed for them to get out of the cycle of food insecurity. Also, Mercy needs to wrestle with how she can get more labor to use on her farms.
- Average CHIEF Score = 1.2 out of 5.