Drought: A Young Woman's Struggle in Rural Mozambique

Evone, 26, with her food rations distributed. CARE/Johanna Mitscherlich

Evone is a 23-year-old women living in a rural compound within the district of Funhalouro. She was married at 14 and has no children. She briefly attended primary school but dropped out because of inconsistent attendance due to the time needed to complete her household duties. Additionally, she stated teachers were often absent, making it difficult to learn. Within this current drought she has few routine responsibilities. 

Previously, she undertook agricultural production on her husband’s land, cleaned her compound and sold small items for additional income. She stated she would buy household goods with the money generated from the surplus in her agriculture production and would then resell these household products at a small profit to other women in her immediate community. With this drought she has no viable agricultural outputs and therefore cannot buy small household goods to sell on, to generate additional income. She says she is now totally reliant

on the monthly food basket distributed by COSACA.

Daily she worries about how to find supplementary food stocks and generate income to cover the cost of non-food items. She is greatly concerned that the drought will continue into the next planting season and has no backup plan in place should emergency food distributions cease. As she does not recall past droughts she cannot identify any resilience strategies that have worked which could help her cope with the current crisis. She has also not found other women to guide or mentor her through the current crisis.

COSACA is the name adopted for the collective efforts of CONCERN, Oxfam, Save the Children and CARE working together in consortium in Mozambique. As part of the drought response, COSACA provides cash vouchers to eligible households. The value of the voucher is adjusted to meet stipulated food basket requirements. Families purchase food from commercial traders.