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House of hunger in Zimbabwe
International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
By Tapiwa Gomo in Harare, Zimbabwe
November 04, 2005

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/RMOI-6HW4Z9?OpenDocument&rc=1&cc=zwe

"I am old now, my body is now tired and I need rest. But I have no option but to continue working for my family," says Emilda Chionika, 54, of Bindura, north east of Harare.

"I am the only person, who can still work for my family," she says, while finding a place underneath a tree away from the scorching sun.

Six o'clock in the morning every day finds Emilda working in her field, about seven kilometers away from her home in the urban township of Chipadze.

"Last year was a bad year for us as we did not have enough rain. I only harvested four bags of maize which only lasted us only three months," she said, wiping sweat from her face.

"From May this year we have been surviving on donations from well-wishers but these days no one is willing to give us anything as they themselves do not have enough to feed their families. We sometimes look for wild foods to supplement what we have."

Emilda's face is lined with worry. Besides her back-breaking farm work, she is now faced with looking after her three adult daughters, who are all HIV-positive. She has been staying with them for the past three years but until now, the harvests were good enough to sustain the family food requirements.

"Most of the time when I am in the field, I am worried about my children at home. Sometimes all three of them are bedridden, and I have to go back home in the afternoon to prepare porridge for them and that takes away my productive time in the field."

Two of them are currently on their feet but not fit enough to work in the field.

"I also stay with ten grandchildren in the same house and this is why I have to work extra hard."

The treatment that Emilda's daughters get requires them to have adequate food but there is little in the house for them and the young children. It is not only a house of hunger. Despair is beginning to grip the family. Their only hope is the next planting season but they will only be able to enjoy the food in March 2006. They need food now. The biggest question is who will bridge this gap.

The Zimbabwe Red Cross Society, through its home-based care programme, delivers food supplies for five people per household. For Emilda's family this is only enough for one week as the number of family members out-numbers the ration.

"I feel my children will die soon if they don't get enough food now and it will be hard for me to look after their children on my own," she says, as tears start dripping down her face. The family can only eat once a day and Emilda spends the entire day under the sun without eating.

Emilda's family is among 12 million people in southern Africa whose lives are threatened by a severe food crisis. The region, with the highest HIV and AIDS prevalence in the world, was almost brought to its knees in 2002 and 2003, when aid agencies chipped in to save human lives. The current food insecurity emergency, although not as severe as that of two years ago, has the potential to create tragedy.

"We need to act immediately to avoid a tragic deterioration in an already alarming situation," said Richard Hunlede, head of the Africa Department at the International Federation, which has launched an appeal seeking 39 million Swiss francs (€ 25.3 million/US$ 29.3 million) to assist 1.5 million people in seven countries in Southern Africa (Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe) for nine months.

The recently launched appeal seeks to give assistance to 1.5 million people facing hunger, like Emilda and her family, until the harvest of 2006. Apart from food aid, plans include food-for-work projects, restoring self-reliance in agriculture, ensuring access to safe water and building the capacity of national Red Cross staff to deal with livelihood and food security problems. The operation will target people living with HIV and AIDS, households with orphans, female-headed households, people with disabilities and households headed by older people.

But the response to the appeal so far is not good news for people like Emilda, her daughters and grandchildren and others in the region.

"The appeal response started off on a very slow note, the bulk of donations going towards the Malawi operation. Yet the stories we hear from other affected countries are harrowing too," says Françoise Le Goff, the head of the International Federation delegation in Southern Africa.

In Malawi, one of the hardest hit countries, many families in the south are desperate for food.

"People here are resorting to wild foods which they do not normally eat even, when things are difficult, but they do not seem to have an option" says Francis Musasa, the Malawi Red Cross Society information officer.

"Some of these wild fruits can be poisonous and we were hoping that by this time of the year food supplies would have improved but the pace is very slow and urgent aid is required to save human lives," he adds.

Although Emilda still has to grapple with how to feed thirteen people until the harvest, recently the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society gave nearly a thousand households with seeds and fertilizers.

"We strongly feel one way of improving livelihood recovery following the drought that destroyed crops is to give people agricultural inputs," says Abel Augustinio, the Relief Coordinator for Zimbabwe Red Cross.

The seeds and fertilizer have made Emilda's burden slightly lighter.

"We were glad because we did not have money to buy the seeds and fertilizer. We do not know what were going to do, but we still need food now to take us to the next harvest," said Emilda adding that in good times she harvests as much as fifty bags of maize which is enough to feed her family for the whole year.

However as donors take time to respond, many humanitarian organizations describe a vicious circle in the region, especially in Malawi. Poverty, hunger and the need to sustain their families force may young women into commercial sex, subject to the whims of clients who often refuse to use condoms for protection.

In Emilda's case, some of her grandchildren have already dropped out of school and may be forced to contribute to family survival through whatever means they can find. In such situations, food aid does not just prevent starvation, but is a resource that allows families the freedom to be able to opt out of this vicious cycle. There can be no other priority more urgent in the region at present than breaking the link between poverty and the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The solution that the International Federation is working on, would see food aid provided at the same time as livelihood support such as seeds and fertilizer.

"I pray that the Red Cross continues and increases its rations just for the sake my daughters and their children."

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