Heavy drought in Zimbabwe

RUCCI · 2016-04-21T09:57:06+00:00

Chidyamakondo high school, near Masvingo in southern Zimbabwe, has won the national girls’ football championships three years in a row. But that cherished record – and far, far more – is now at risk. “Students are fainting, struggling to concentrate in lessons, dropping out of school … we’re having to shorten our assemblies and cut back on sport,” says headteacher Morrison Musorowegomo. “Some of our players would rather leave the school and get married, or they will simply stay in the villages because they have no food.” Southern Africa is suffering the consequences of perhaps the worst drought in 35 years, and pupils at Chidyamakondo are bearing the brunt of it. Four of the football team’s best players have stopped coming to school because they need to help their families find food. The dropout rate fluctuates but is currently averaging 10%. The problem, though, does not stop here. In March, the World Food Programme warned that almost 16 million people were already food insecure in southern Africa. Last week, this figure was raised to 31.6 million by the Southern Africa Food and Nutrition Security Working Group (pdf). One of the strongest El Niño weather events ever recorded is partly to blame: the UN has warned that its severity has “overwhelmed” many countries. It has caused severe droughts and floods in southern Africa, and hunger crises elsewhere. South Africa, traditionally a regional breadbasket, is just recovering from what it described as its worst drought in about 30 years, receiving the lowest rainfall in 2015 since recording began in 1904. Mozambique has raised alert levels for central and southern regions. Last week in Malawi, which is facing its most severe food crisis in a decade, president Peter Mutharika declared a state of national disaster. Almost half of Malawian children under five are malnourished. At Chidyamakondo, an otherwise thriving school with immaculate grounds, the devastating effects of the drought are all too clear. “It’s very difficult to teach hungry children,” says Musorowegomo. “In classes the [attention] span is very small, and you find the kids run to the tap to get water. It’s not that they are thirsty – no, they are hungry, they want to have something in their tummies, so their learning has been greatly affected by drought. “The majority of these kids go hungry the whole day. If at all, they are going to get a meal at night – they will be very lucky to do so.” He points to a marula tree that has become an unofficial canteen. “You would find our kids gathered around that tree eating the fruits. That is their lunch. The situation is really bad.” The pressures of hunger tend to affect girls and boys differently. Girls become vulnerable to being coerced into sex for food or cash. “Boys, they go for gold panning, and some will skip the border to South Africa,” says Musorowegomo. Nineteen-year-old Prudence Zurumba plays in the football team. Currently studying literature, history and divinity A-levels, she wants to be a lawyer – if her parents can find the funds to get her through university. Things, she says, are “very difficult” both on and off the pitch. “If a pupil comes to school hungry, they won’t have that power to do the session and maybe some of them would have to be sent back home,” she says. “Even if we are the champions we face difficulties to achieve that.” Bernard Hadzirabwi, the administrator for Chivi, the district in which the school lies, says the impact of the drought in the community is widespread. “People have not been able to plant. There is virtually nothing in most of the fields. As far as the food security situation is concerned, in the district, we can talk of between 33% and 40% affected as of March, and that percentage is expected to rise … because we really received very little rainfall.” Source: The Guardian

Thread starter RUCCI
Start date Apr 21, 2016

RUCCI

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Apr 21, 2016

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