WFP PROVIDES HOPE and much needed sustenance AMIDST a raging drought

Mangundu Meinolf, a pensioner of 60 years of age lives in a shelter in Keharo, Kapako constituency in the Kavango West region. Mangundu completed his grade 10 and is a former mine worker who is now a fulltime subsistence farmer living with five children and several grandchildren.

Kapako is the poorest village in the region according to the 2011 Namibian Housing Census. Mangundu narrates of the severe effects that the drought has had on him and his community, noting the loss of cattle and no yield from their farms. Mangundu and his family survived mainly from mahangu (millet) and some vegetables, which they could not harvest from the field as a result of drought.

Thankfully, he now benefits from the food basket distributed by WFP in partnership with the Red Cross Namibia.

He is entitled to five 10 kg bags of mealie meal, 7 kg of beans and 2 liters of cooking oil monthly.

Mangundu says, “We are very grateful to the people who have given us hope to live because we are now surviving, and we believe we can survive this scare of drought. I urge them (donors) not to end here because if it wasn’t for them and WFP, I don’t think we could’ve survived this drought. The world needs such people, let the good job continue elsewhere not only in Namibia”.

Source: World Food Programme