Araújo Mabunda says he has never seen a drought this severe before. He is a community leader in Chichongole, in Mozambique’s Guijá district, where more than a dozen women and children have died from health complications related to drought. In Chichongole, the crops have failed and most of the cattle has died off. The few cattle still alive are so thin that their sale price won’t even buy a bag of flour, according to Araújo. Many in the village survive on tomatoes and river roots. Some are so hungry they tie straps of fabric around their stomachs to lessen the pain.
“We’ve never been in such a critical situation before. This year, there’s not been a drop of rain and last year it rained only once.
Some people are sick from hunger. They feel really really hungry. People with chronic illnesses are affected the most and many have died, as recently as last week (end of September).
This year, six people with HIV from my community died from health complications related to drought. The medication they have to take is very harmful on an empty stomach. They’re also too weak to travel to the hospital to stock up on medicine.
Seven children also died due to the drought — mostly babies, about 6-months-old, because mothers are malnourished and their milk no longer has nutrients.
Children give up school because they’re hungry. Before they were able to get fruit off the trees. Now the trees have no fruit. The local school has lost more than half of its pupils.
As a leader of this community, I strive to make the government understand the situation. People cry over this. As a leader I cry with them as I see people dying.
Despite the difficult situation, I try to pass on a message of hope to those who are still standing so that they remain strong, continue to stand up and have our fields ready so that as soon as it rains, we can start planting again.
At times we look at the sky with a cup and we ask god to give us the strength to be able to overcome this situation and we ask god for some rain.”
