In Swaziland, a small land-locked country in southern Africa, the worst El Niño weather phenomenon in decades has left 25 per cent of the population, or more than 320,000 people in desperate need of food assistance. With entire crops failed, the Red Cross is turning to cash transfers to help see families through the difficult times. Over the past three months, 4,200 households have received cash transfers, most of them via a text message.
“At first, we didn’t know what mobile money was. When the text message about the cash grant arrived, we would clutch the phone tightly. We were scared we’d drop the phone, and something would happen to the message,” Bettena Sihlongonyane reminisces, as her neighbours laugh. “Now we know what is going on, and we usually go and get the grant the very next day.”
With their personal SIM card, the recipient of the cash grant can claim their grant either from the office of the local phone operator, MTN, or from a Red Cross distribution centre. According to a survey conducted by the Baphalali Swaziland Red Cross Society, 96 per cent of recipients use the cash grant to buy food.
Nkhosingphile Mhlanga, 78, is one of the cash grant recipients. All of her children have died of AIDS. She now cares for her ten grandchildren, all of whom are school-aged. With the grant of approximately 33 Swiss francs, she buys a 15-kilogram bag of mealie-meal, the rough corn flour commonly eaten in Swaziland, as well as beans, potatoes and soap.
“We are very grateful for the grant.”