Minister of Information, Civic Education and Communications Technology Mark Botomani has admitted that government is aware that many families in the country are currently facing hunger.

Botomani said this over the weekend when he visited 112 families who lost their properties due to heavy rains and strong winds that affected villages in the area of Traditional Authority Mwambo in Zomba District.

During the visit, the minister who is also a parliamentarian for the area, donated 10 kg bag of maize flour, roofing plastic papers and money amounting to K3,000 to each family affected by the disaster which occurred on November 8 this year.

Botomani said: “I had to come and assess the damages myself and it’s a very sad situation and that’s why I decided to assist the affected families with some items so that they can temporarily rely on that and I am pleading with other organizations and well-wishers to come up with more assistance.”

Due to the incident people lost houses, food, domestic animals and some were injured.

Some group village heads whose people were greatly affected include Tchete, Chingondo, Magoli and Kathebwe.

Group Village Headman Tchete praised the minister for the donation and said the disaster left many families vulnerable in his area and are in urgent need of assistance such as food and shelter.

One of the beneficiaries, Margarete Lozario from Mwapasa village, who is a widow with four children said her house collapsed destroying food, a bag of fertilizer and killing all her chickens.

The disaster also blew off school block roofs in four primary schools.