Back to Index

Starving villagers plead for donor assistance
Nqobani Ndlovu, The Standard (Zimbabwe)
October 15, 2006

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/viewinfo.cfm?linkid=11&id=5010&siteid=1

BULAWAYO – Villagers in Matabeleland North have appealed to donor agencies to resume food handouts, saying they face starvation after last year’s poor harvest.

Despite the average rains last year, some areas in the drought-prone south-western part of the country are affected by serious food shortages.

Villagers who spoke to The Standard during a recent visit said their children were dropping out of school because of hunger as they spent hours searching for food.

"We did receive some rain," said Nollen Tshuma, a mother of five at Mahlabathini, "but we recorded poor harvests after some of the crops were destroyed by the rains.

"Our children cannot attend school as they cannot concentrate on empty stomachs."

Another villager, Hezekiah Mahlangu, said: "We are crying for donors to assist us with the little supplementary feeding programmes as we face starvation."

Some villagers claimed hunger sometimes forced them to eat wild fruits.

Some of the worst hit areas are Mahlabathini, Jiba-Jiba, Gomoza, Maname, Gwampa, Silwane, Ndibimbili and others near the Gwayi-Shangani River.

The food crisis, according to the villagers, has been worsened by crippling water shortages.

A recent report by the World Food Programme confirmed the crisis in Matabeleland North.

"Teachers and local leaders interviewed in Matabeleland North and South expressed apprehension for the coming months due to insufficient food at household level resulting from poor harvests in the 2005/06 agricultural season," read the report.

MP for Lupane, Njabuliso Mguni, confirmed there was a food crisis in some areas due to poor harvest.

Mguni also confirmed the worst-hit areas faced water shortages as well. "There is no water as most of the boreholes are broken down and need repairing.

"There is a food crisis as most villagers recorded poor harvests. The worrying situation is that villagers have to drink water from dams used by cattle and other animals, thereby exposing themselves to diseases."

This is at a time when some parts of the country, such as Bulawayo, have been hit by maize-meal shortages.

But the government insists the country recorded a bumper harvest through the success of the army-assisted agriculture project, Operation Maguta.

The WFP, according to reports, ended its Vulnerable Group Feeding programme last April after the government indicated there was enough food for the nation.

But on Wednesday last week WFP said 1.4 million people in Zimbabwe will need food aid in the six months until the next summer harvest.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP