Stories
March 21, 2019 • 2 min read
“We had no food at home. We were eating one meal a day at 12 noon but after getting this food, we will be having three meals a day. As young people, we are unemployed and have lost hope of getting jobs and money. The food allocations will ease our stress on where we can get food for our children,”
Twenty seven families from Waterfalls community in Harare had their hopes to access food restored after receiving food items from GOAL with support from the World Food Program (WFP). The WFP is supporting GOAL to distribute maize, pulses, oil and super cereal to 1,300 households in Mbare, Mabvuku, Epworth, Hopley, Stoneridge and Southlea Park. Beneficiaries of this initiative are cholera affected households in the high density suburbs.
Speaking on the side lines of the distribution, Ms. Tsitsi Masvosva (60), related that when her husband died in 2017, her life changed forever. She was left to fend for her family by herself, and to care for their grandchildren aged between four to seven years with no support. After her husband’s death, she suffered stress related conditions and started taking blood pressure medication from October 2018.
“Taking care of the family is hard without my husband. This portion of food from GOAL will help me feed my grandchildren. They will eat porridge everyday for the next two months. I also want to thank GOAL for giving us food directly, unlike other organisations who distribute items through village leaders. We never get these donations, said Tsitsi.
Sat next to Tsitsi was a young woman, Sekai Rwarinda (28) who asked to be educated on the GOAL Code of Conduct, which was stuck a few metres away from the distribution point. After the discussion, the young woman revealed how quickly the food distribution occured.
“We had food at home. We were eating one meal a day at 12 noon but after getting this food, we will be having three meals a day. As young people, we are unemployed and have lost hope of getting jobs and money. The food allocations will ease our stress on where we can get food for our children,” said Sekai.
This initiative is one of the initial steps by GOAL Zimbabwe to address urban food insecurity after a rapid assessment carried out by GOAL and World Vision in Harare, which revealed that there were high levels of poverty and food insecurity in urban areas.GOAL staff member allocates maize portions at the distribution pointFamily shares lighter moment after receiving food
