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Food first before rehabilitation, A Jairos Jiri Association Experience
Grace Kamanga
Extracted from NASCOH News No. 51
April 2004

As the effect of drought continues to ravage most of the areas in rural Matabeland and parts of Masvingo Province, people living with disabilities have emerged the worst affected. According to periodic reports received from the Jairos Jiri Association Community Based Rehabilitation workers in the field, hunger has in many cases affected delivery of rehabilitation services to needy clients. It is most common that when they carry out routine home visits the clients’ first question is "Have you brought me some food? What is the use of giving me rehabilitation when I am going to die because of hunger?" This difficult situation is further compounded by both clients and members of their communities developing a tendency of also not attending workshops if there is no food provided, perhaps as a way of drawing the attention of those involved in various programmes in their areas to recognise their plight.

In Chivi District for example, most needy children who are at school now rely on supplementary feeding programmes sponsored by International Non-Governmental Organisations. They no longer regard the food as supplementary but a basic meal for the day, because they have nothing to eat at home. Although the poor families sometimes get food from their neighbours it is not enough to sustain them.

Everyday the poor disabled children in the area look forward to going to school where they will be provided with porridge at break time together with other children.

Confronted with soul touching questions by hungry clients which have become synonymous with their home visits, our field staff have often taken pains in explaining that the main thrust of Jairos Jiri Association is to provide them with rehabilitation services and not food but the clients have always pleaded for their assistance with food. In an effort to alleviate total starvation our field officers in the operational areas have convinced community leaders to cater for people living with disabilities first when it comes to food distribution and as such our clients are now free from the food-for-work programmes and are given the opportunity to buy first when food for sale is delivered. This is mainly attributed to the success of our awareness campaigns and the new Lobby and Advocacy Programme and as we continue to implement these important programmes we hope for more positive outcomes for the benefit of our many clients living with disabilities.

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