Orlando Machangane proudly sits beside a lush field of corn in Machinho, a drought-affected community in Mozambique’s Chokwe district. He is a community leader and a volunteer for the German Red Cross, which is running a project with the Mozambique Red Cross that improves food security, water availability and sanitation in the community and helps it prepare for and manage future risks. The project has provided the community with equipment and an irrigation system that has transformed their barren land from dry sand into fertile soil that now produces abundant crops.
“Before the project, our community could only farm in lower areas and we were surviving only on a diet of pumpkin. We would have to prepare the field for when the rains would come. And we would live waiting for rain, because there was no other option. We were not doing well.
Now it’s no longer necessary to wait for rain. The Red Cross gave us a water pump, an irrigation system and a corn grinding device and showed us how to handle the equipment so that we can use it ourselves. Now we are able to live and we cannot express how happy this makes us. Things have changed for us because the German Red Cross and the Mozambique Red Cross cared enough to help Machinho and 42 families here who were in much difficulty.
We can see our community pulling together now to survive this drought and we would like to learn even more. We see how much this project has helped us.
For me, to reach and help these 42 families is very rewarding. It makes me feel very happy and good on a spiritual level. I would like this project to continue because not everyone in Machinho has been reached. Look at that tree. That tree is really dry. If you were to hang from a branch, the whole tree would collapse. That’s how our community feels.”
