Children in rural Zimbabwe face climate change crisis as hunger disrupts education

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CHILDREN in Zimbabwe’s rural communities are bearing the brunt of the effects of climate change.

Children's academics are also feeling the heat as the sun scorches the earth's surface in Matabeleland South province.

One afternoon, Tjingabili headmaster Christopher Mguni watched helplessly as some of his pupils fainted due to the extreme weather.

“Unfortunately we had some cases of learners fainting in classes, especially in the hot season. Pupils would come to school hungry and during extracurricular activities some would faint,” said Mguni.

Tjingabili primary pupils from the Mangwe District travel several kilometers to attend school in the sweltering heat, taking a toll on them.

This has been further compounded by climate change-induced El Nino, which has resulted in poor harvests in the area.

The drought has left children at the receiving end of hunger, threatening their health.

For communities that depend on selling Mopane worms, drought has affected this trade throwing many lives into a tailspin.

“Learners come from different backgrounds. In this community as you can see we did not receive enough rainfall and some families that were anticipating harvests have been affected. Some children came to school hungry which affected their academics,” said Mguni.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 1.7 million children are food insecure in the country.

Recently, UNICEF appealed for US$84.9 million in funding for emergency response to children and women in Zimbabwe.

Food security strategy in schools

The soaring cases of children fainting at Tjingabili prompted Mguni to establish a small garden in the vicinity of the school.

The garden would cater to the children, however, the project suffered a blow as the lack of water at the institution and the community hampered the project.

Early this year, Tjingabili Primary was one of several schools in the rural communities that received assistance from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE), with help from UNICEF with funding from the European Union, to establish nutrition gardens.

Tjingabili received US$6 599 at the beginning of the year which has been used for the re-establishment of the nutrition garden.

The school has also embarked on a livestock rearing project to augment the garden project.

“This has had a positive impact on school programs. It has helped us to feed the children. They are now getting nutritious meals and due to feeding our learners with a hot meal a day we have noticed that there has been some improvement. They are now coming to school knowing that they will be given a plate of meals. Our attendance was not good.

“Pupils were not coming to school as a result of food shortages at their homes and communities. This has made them come to school every day. This has improved our academic results. They are now performing better as compared in the past,” said Mguni.

Nutritional gardens enhance dietary diversity by producing a variety of crops and vegetables for the students.

These gardens have been recognized as key to ensuring food security in schools, especially during the El Nino-induced drought.

MoPSE director of communications and advocacy, Taungana Ndoro, said the nutrition gardens have helped students from dropping out of school.

“The project shows how the government is working in close coordination with our development partners. The feeding program is mainly rolled out in phases; we start with primary schools.

“We have rolled out the program to schools that are in peri-urban and high-density areas to ensure that our schools receive school feeding. This ensures that learners are motivated to come to school and be able to concentrate,” said Ndoro.