Food Aid, Ngomeni Village, Gokwe Province

Anna is a Food Aid beneficiary at the FDP in Ngomeni village, Ngomeni ward, Gokwe South province. Anna is from Ngomeni village.

I have 8 children and survive mostly by working on other people’s fields. This involves digging fields or picking cotton. You can do very little with the money because things have become so expensive. I didn’t harvest anything this year.

My husband died in December 2002. This was the time when most people who were sick began deteriorating. Many people died around that time.

My husband’s death has left this family in a desperate situation. When he was alive he would be able to find work in difficult times, now there is nothing.

Last night we ate nothing because the food from Concern had run out. It ran out almost one month ago (there was no distribution in May as WFP had been unable to secure the food).

Before Concern came to this area we were living only on mashamba (local variety of melon) and whatever mealie meal (maizeflour) we could get. If there was no mealie meal available I would buy sugar to give to the children with hot water so as give them energy. I also went out and picked nyeve, a wild vegetable which you can dry out and eat. It tastes bitter but it is quite good for you. The children are aged between one and eighteen. The younger children used to cry all night from hunger. At night I would be so worried that my children might not be alive the next morning.

The children often feinted and us older people really thought they were dying. This went on for many months towards the end of last year (2002). My three year old became extremely thin. It pained me so much to see this. He still hasn’t fully recovered but he is recovering.  

My two children, aged eight and ten, are in school, the others had to drop out as I cannot afford to send the children to high school. 

I was so happy to receive food from Concern. People had been talking about someone coming with food but even when I had the food in my home I could not believe it. We had been in such a desperate situation. My children started improving on day that we received the food. They stopped crying and were all happy again. It changed everything.

Unfortunately my husband had died one week beforehand. He was already sick but the hunger killed him. A sick person needs food. He became very sick one month and some days before. His illness started as malaria but he soon developed a recurrent cough and had breathing problems. His legs then started to swell from the hunger. I took him to the hospital but they could do nothing for him and could not give any diagnosis for his problem, but I know he died of TB.

I am sure he was bewitched but I do not know why anyone would have reason to curse him. I took him to the traditional healer who told me that he had been cursed. I paid Z$12,000 for the treatment (equivalent to one month’s salary for Concern guard). I could not afford the treatment but the people I attend mass with helped me out. I am Catholic but we did not let the priest know about the treatment. The healer gave him a drink made out of some roots, unfortunately it did not work. He is a very good healer but he says that the curse was too strong.

I think another person in the village cursed him. The healer knows who it is but cannot tell me.

I am 39, my husband was 43 when he died.

I think Concern have done such good work in this community. They are the reason for so many people surviving this crisis. I want to thank Concern for what they have done. I wish for them to continue with this work. If they were not here these people here at the distribution would now be dying.

I don’t know what the future holds, I would hope to plant for next year’s harvest but how will I afford the seed? If I manage to get the seed I will plant maize, groundnuts, rape, cabbage and some cotton.

I have 6 acres but will not be able to plant all of it, we have no ploughs.
 
I did not harvest anything this year (harvest is May-June) so my family are totally dependant on Concern’s help for the next year.

I think that HIV has become such a great problem amongst my community. The number of infected people has definitely increased and they need good food or else they will die.

Stigmatisation is a huge problem. If your husband is sick and people think he has Aids people will begin to isolate you. If you offer someone food they will not take it out of fear of getting infected with HIV.

People do know that HIV is contacted through sex but others believe you can become infected through normal physical contact and by caring for someone with Aids. I don’t believe this but there have been some cases in the village of sick people being abandoned by their relatives. Others believe Aids is not related to sex, this is why some are so reckless. These people are warned by others in the community but they don’t listen.

I know that HIV is contacted by having sex or through being injected with a used needle. I have also heard that mothers can pass it on to their children. If the pregnant mother has it, the survival chances of the child is slim.

I think the main cause of Aids in the community is elder or married men going out with younger women. Some of these women are married already but many are unmarried.

Half of the people in this community have been affected by HIV but no one admits it. You watch people getting sick and can usually tell when it’s Aids. People talk each time someone gets sick and sick people always experience some stigmatisation.

It’s wrong. These same people that alienate sick people will go and attend their funeral when they die, but their compassion is not genuine. They are doing it out of duty, it’s what’s expected of you. 

I think that people become more compassionate about the situation when they have had a loved one die of Aids.

There are many reasons given for people who are sick. Very few people admit that it’s HIV. The typical reasons given are that the person has been bewitched, people also say that it’s TB. But people know. We call real TB, “TB1”, but when people know that it’s really Aids they refer to it as “TB2”. I think that about 70% of these sick people have Aids and about 30% of them have been bewitched. Those who have Aids usually have many sores while those who are bewitched have breathing problems.

There are 2 people in my village who are very sick now, I think that both of them have been bewitched.

My husband did not experience any stigmatisation while he was sick, most people knew he’d been bewitched.

This combination of Aids and hunger has killed so many people in this community. There is no cure for Aids, it is a disaster for my community.

It pains me so much to see so many children left without parents because of Aids. These children become so desperate especially if there are no relatives to take them in. Many resort to begging.

There are around 120 families in my village. There are almost 30 families where both parents have died. They leave so many young children behind.”

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