ZAMBIA: Bishops Appeal For Support To Feed the Hungry in Drought And Flood Stricken Areas of Zambia
Bishop Chinyemba (holding Mic) addressing the media, flanked by ZCCB Secretary General Fr. Cleophas Lungu
The Catholic Bishops in Zambia have launched a campaign to raise slightly over 9 million US dollars for relief food to be distributed in areas that were hit by drought and floods during the 2018/2019 farming season.
Making the announcement recently, Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB) Bishop Director for Caritas Zambia Rt. Rev. Evans Chinyemba, OMI said that if the hunger situation is not addressed, many people could soon starve to death in the affected areas.
Bishop Evans Chinyemba, OMI said the hunger situation is very pathetic and that water has equally become scarce in the areas hit with drought in the southern part of the country.
“To understand the hunger situation in the country, the Catholic Church through Caritas Zambia working with Diocesan partners gathered information from the affected households using community interviews, focus groups, direct observation and household field visitation in the affected areas. The hungry people are vulnerable and easily manipulated. This is leading to loss of dignity among our brothers and sisters in Southern, Central, Western, Eastern, Luapula and other parts of the country. We would like to inform the Government of our concern as well as to make an earnest appeal to our partners and people of good will.”
“Listening to the Word of God inspires us to be instruments of justice, peace and love. Let us spread this message of love to all people especially those who are currently suffering from hunger and lack of clean water,” Bishop Chinyemba continued.
According to Caritas Zambia’s analysis, some households do not have enough food to take them through until next year.
“The Southern, Western and some parts of Eastern, Central and Lusaka provinces experienced total crop failure. This means that households in these areas did not harvest anything that would help them to sustain their livelihoods up to the next agricultural season. There are 50 districts affected by this situation and households are currently already experiencing serious hunger,” he said.
“According to the vulnerability Assessment Committee (VAC) under Disaster Management and Mitigation Unity (DMMU), a total of 418,969 households were affected by the dry spell. In the places visited by the Catholic Church agents, 79 per cent of the crops were affected by drought; 13 per cent by floods; four per cent were affected by both drought and floods. Bishop Chinyemba also shared that water shortage has affected not only the people but also their livestock.
“The prolonged dry spell during the last farming period has created water shortage for both people and animals. There are already reports from Gwembe that people are sharing water with animals,” he said. Currently many households have nothing to eat and are surviving on wild fruits or are getting-by without any food. This will certainly compromise the nutrition and health status of most people especially the children and if nothing is urgently done, we may begin to experience deaths from hunger.”
Bishop Chinyemba said evidence of widespread food distribution to all “these people is missing.”
“In places where this is happening, the amount of food given is so little that households are failing to meet their food requirements,” he said.
“The ZCCB through Caritas Zambia in collaboration with the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Norwegian Church Aid, and CAFOD is putting together relief effort to contribute towards the alleviation of hunger in the affected regions.”
Appealing to Christians, Bishop Chinyemba said, “As followers of Christ, the mark of being truly His disciple is to respond to the needs of the little brothers and sisters who suffer. Your support no matter how little will go a long way in saving that little child in Kaoma, Pemba, and Kazungula,” he said.
He further asked politicians to avoid taking advantage of people’s desperation and asked the Government to declare the hunger a national disaster.
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By Mwenya Mukuka, Communications Officer ZCCB
