Wilise Phiri, a 27-year-old divorced mother of three, survives by selling potato fritters at a roadside market in the Malawian capital Lilongwe, earning the equivalent of about $3 a day. "It was only upon closer examination that I realised that it was cash the government had promised us many months ago," Phiri said as she and her three youngsters peeled potatoes for her business in Nthandire township.