The porridge, which
is cooked over a fire in a large pot, is a mixture of maize meal and
soya beans, rich in minerals and vitamins, explains Dambudzo Kumbirai
Nolorao, the teacher in charge of the Supplementary Feeding Programme.
The program is run by Lutheran Development Service (LDS) - a member
of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International.
"The brain of a
child needs good food," adds the director of the school, Marunwa Siphuma.
The program, which LDS has been running since last October, was started
to counteract the severe drought in Zimbabwe that left families in the
rural areas without enough food to feed their children.
However, for most
of the pupils, the supplementary food, is the only meal that they get
to eat per day.
The food crisis
has not only affected poor families in the rural areas, but also teachers
and other workers based in rural districts. Although they can afford
to buy food, many of the shops are empty, explains Siphuma. The shortage
of basic commodities such as maize meal, the staple food in Zimbabwe,
has increased the urgent need for food aid in the country.
Siphuma
tells how his deputy received a phone call that morning that his children
who live in the city of Bulawayo have run out of food in the house and
he had to go around looking for food to buy. "We too will die if no
rain falls," says Siphuma. "Have you seen the bones along the road?"
he asks. "The cattle are dying because even they do not have enough
food. Some cows are lying along the road, too weak to get up."
An irrigation project
in the district "Rovhana Roita", which is part of the Integral Rural
Development project run by LDS, has also been affected by the drought.
The project, which started in 2000, has 40 people working on it – 34
women and six men. James Mukwame a former farm labourer is happy about
the project. Boreholes were drilled for the irrigation, which provides
water for a big vegetable garden and the project's cattle. By selling
their vegetables and cattle, the project turns a small profit - had
there not been a drought, the program, which in the past had won regional
and national agricultural prizes, would be self-supporting, says James.
There is however
a big need for emergency preparedness. Loud Nyoni, an administrative
officer with the rural district office of Beit Bridge and the person
in charge of co-ordinating the work of the NGOs in the area, has challenged
the ones operating in the district to build more dams and to upgrade
the irrigation systems which are now old and outdated. This way he believes,
when the next drought strikes, the people of the district will be able
to cope.
