Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
How NI money is helping to make families’ gardens grow
Charity’s projects assisting families in Zimbabwe
THANDEKILE Ncube looks out at a field of arid soil where her hopes of a bountiful harvest lie in ruins. She planted maize and other staples to feed herself and her two children, but on the little patch of land where she had prayed for rain and for green shoots instead she sees desolation.
In the field that offered her safety from hunger, there is little now but a future fraught with uncertainty.
The 32-year-old widow lives in the Bulawayo region in southwest Zimbabwe where hers and many other communities face acute food shortages.
They struggle with the relentless calamities including Covid, the war in Ukraine affecting oil and food prices and changing global weather patterns.
The people of Zimbabwe are still recovering from Cyclone Idai which tore through parts of the country three years ago causing mudslides and destroying homes and crops.
Many people in the region depend on rain-fed agriculture to feed their families.
But the rainy season has been anything but and fields that should have been full of maize and other crops lie barren.
Thandekile said: “It’s going to be a very difficult year ahead. I was given some land by my late husband’s uncle and I was growing groundnuts, sorghum, millet, maize and melons.
“Now it looks like I will only harvest two or three bags of the grains and some melons. I would usually be expecting a yield of 12 bags.”
And she is no exception. Farmers who spoke to Trocaire said they will lose 75% of their harvest this year, meaning critical food shortages for communities in the coming months.
Thandekile and her children, Nomatter, 11, and eight-year-old Forward, are the faces of the Lenten Trocaire box this year.
The aid agency visited them and others to see how donations from Northern Ireland are helping.
She said it had looked promising, but with no rain in February or March everything changed. Rocketing food prices have left many struggling already, so a bad harvest is a double-blow.
Thandekile added: “Coupled with this disastrous harvest is the effect of rising food prices. As in many countries around the world, including here at home, the war in Ukraine has seen the price of food and fuel sky-rocket in Zimbabwe in recent weeks. This is having a profound impact on people who already had very little disposable income.
“The price of food was already going up because of Covid but now everything is costing more – vegetable oil that we cook with, salt, soap, sugar, batteries and candles. The little money I have will have to be spent on food. I don’t know how I will pay for the children’s school fees and fear they will be sent home if I can’t pay.”
The World Food Programme has warned of an impending food crisis in the country after food prices spiked upwards following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to the Zimbabwe National Vulnerability Assessment Report, chronic
If we didn’t have the garden things would be even more difficult THANDEKILE NCUBE ON HOW TROCAIRE HELPS HER
malnutrition is already endemic. An estimated 60% of Zimbabweans – or 7.5 million people – face acute food insecurity.
Thandekile benefits from a community garden which has been funded by Trocaire and allows local families to cultivate four beds each.
A solar-powered pump has been installed to ensure the garden is irrigated meaning Thandekile and others are able to grow kale, spinach, beetroot, tomatoes and carrots.
She said: “This means that the children are able to eat a more balanced diet and I even have some produce left over to sell. If we didn’t have the garden things would be even more difficult for us.” Trocaire donations have been helping too with the aftermath of the cyclone, particularly in the Mutare region, six hours by road east of the capital Harare.
In the village of Ngangu, nestled on highlands, the storm wrought unimaginable damage on March 15 three years ago with more than 300 killed.
Jennifer Mhondera, 50, who has lived in the village, for 30 years remembers it well.
She said: “People were screaming for help but it was pitch black and the rain was torrential so we couldn’t do anything.
“Trees were falling all around us – I was so frightened. I didn’t want to stay in my house so I went to the church. They started bringing in the injured and then the bodies. It was horrific to see the injured people in so much pain.”
Before the disaster, Jennifer had been a member of the local justice and peace group which was set up by Trocaire partner, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace.
In the aftermath Trocaire supported CCJP in setting up an information kiosk, staffed by Jennifer and others, where people could go for support.
Jennifer said: “CCJP trained me and others in how to provide psycho-social support to people to help them with the awful trauma they experienced. We also were a point of contact for people who wanted to know what support was available from the Government and we were able to relay the needs of people to officials.
“And we were also able to speak to people and provide advice on how to mitigate for any future disasters. It was great that the members of the community were able to speak to people that they knew and trusted.”
■ To make a donation visit www. trocaire.org. All donations made by the public in Northern Ireland will be matched pound for pound by the UK Government until June 1.