Telling the ECSA Story

Moono is a mother of five children who live in Gwembe in Zambia’s Southern Province along with her husband.   As a family of seven, the onset of the drought in Zambia has forced the family to make difficult decisions to ensure their livelihood and well-being under challenging circumstances. Moono and her husband were forced to sell all of their livestock assets which included 11 goats and 14 guinea fowl to earn additional income to purchase food. The selling of assets has unfortunately become a common trend in the region as the drought and food security crisis deepens. With money to buy food being hard to come by, Moono explains that all but one of her children have dropped out of school.  Saving money to pay for her children’s schools fees (approximately $19 USD per child per school term) has proved difficult, and only Moono’s 17-year-old daughter remains enrolled in school due to financial support she has received from the Social Welfare Office. Her children not enr...

“…now having a latrine is not an option but it is a matter of dignity” How do you cut diarrhea by 40%  and have people use the latrine so the water stays safe? Make it about dignity. That’s not the only change people in Ethiopia are seeing with the RESET II project. They’re also seeing improved agricultural production, better government services, and sustainable practices for the future. RESET II in Ethiopia is running from 2016-2020 with $7 million in funding from the European Union. In partnership with Action Against Hunger, it is reaching more than 378,000 people. What have we accomplished?     People are healthier: there has been a 40% reduction in diarrhea.     Water is safer: people are 83% more likely to be using safe water sources, and 44% more likely to be using a latrine.    Agriculture is more sustainable: people are 83% more likely to be using sustainable land and water management practices. They ha...

Hope grown: seeds and some rain bring promise to Cupo, Mozambique Cupo –a small town, in the Southeast of Mozambique - no longer bears any resemblance to its long-established “fields of green” reputation. Crops have failed, and the residents do not have enough food to eat or sell. Finding water is a daily struggle because the village wells, even the deeper ones, have run dry.   People now have to endure a half-day’s walk just to find drinking water. After three years of drought, people in Cupo work twice as hard to eke out half a living. But, for the first time in many years, it rained, and every resident rejoiced. Especially because this coincided with distributions of drought-resistant seeds and tools by CARE, to help villagers cope with the extreme climatic changes. One such resident is 32-year-old Martha Chiruca: “This year I will produce my most plentiful crop after three years without great rain. We hope it continues raining as we now have seeds to cultivate. Wi...

By Jennifer Bose, Emergency Communications Officer, CARE · There is a sea of mud and rubble for as far as the eyes can see. In one of the poorest neighborhoods in Beira, the second largest city in Mozambique, the devastation caused by Cyclone Idai is plain to see. It’s all around you. The blazing sun is searing to the skin. Yesterday, my personal nightmare was not having running water in the guesthouse, forcing me to shower with a bucket full of cold water. Looking at the children playing in dirty water around me, my “phobia” vanishes almost instantly. There’s rubble everywhere. Parts of metal roofs have sunk into the mud and large patty fields now have the same effects as quicksand, making them impossible to cross. In the middle of the narrow walkways, puddles remind me of the vast flooding people experienced here just a few days ago. "The water was up to my hips," Manuela tells me. She ran outside with her eight-month-old daughter, Mariam, when the cyclone ble...

By Joseph Scott The spectre of flooding has always hung over Chitsa village in Nsanje, Rhoda Benford says. A fact of life during rainy seasons, the floods have traditionally always been anticipated during the month of January. So, when the month of January passed without incident, Rhoda thought the worst was over and started preparing for a good harvest. This year, she says, the crop had been good and she expected a bumper harvest. “I had a good crop of maize, some millet and a lot of pumpkins,” says the mother of five. “But all has been washed away.” Cyclone Idai caught communities unaware Like many in her village, Rhoda never saw the Cyclone Idai induced floods coming. She was looking into the future with hope. Almost 80 percent of people affected by the floods rely on their small holder farms as a source of income and for their livelihood. So, having a good harvest means much more than just a meal on the table. “If I get surplus harvest, I sell some to get mo...

By Ninon Ndayikengurukiye Oh Motherhood, wonders of wonders That’s what parents and elders have taught me That motherhood was precious That a smile from a newborn is Such a song that brings to the seventh heaven But I've realized it takes more than a kid’s smile to be a happy mother Oh Motherhood, river pebble Hopelessness when I realized That I did not have enough milk to breastfeed the bones of my own bones And no money to appease their hunger A great sadness lay in me, which overpowered me I break into tears and wince of sorrows In a tighter timeframe, my hopes to be a good mother darken And I realized it takes strength to fail and still stand Memory, Oh memory, Blue like this scarf with unfathomable depths that carries our pain Drown in my kids’ innocent starving eyes Unable to breastfeed them Beaten like a criminal by the father of mine I experienced long months of hospitalization Beaten for missing breast milk, Body’s milk which I’m not potter Distraught after the de...

My name is Aline YAMINYOBORA. I am 23 years old. I live on Buseruko hill, in Mugina commune of Cibitoke province. I was born in a modest family. My father Jérôme NSABIMANA, a 62 years old butcher and my mother Félicité HAKIZIMANA, 48, a farmer, both manage to provide for their six children: 3 girls and 3 boys and I am the fifth child of this family. Since my young age, my mother has always advised me to study, prepare my future, pay attention to boys who could mislead me and destroy my life but I did not pay attention. At the age of 15, I was in 6 th grade and I passed the national test but could not get the grade required to go to high school. I had to leave my commune to study in a private craft school and I took the sewing option. The school was located in another neighboring commune of Rugombo where I had to walk one hour in the morning and evening. There are lots of vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles on Mugina and Rugombo road. People I didn’t know could stop to give me an...