Food

I was asked to write about the food situation for the refugees and also for the people in the Zambian villages in my area. The following is an explanation of what foods are available and the source of these foods.

In the refugee camps, almost all the food they eat is provided by the World Food Programme (WFP). It’s a little complicated because WFP provides the food to Red Cross and Red Cross distributes it to the refugees. WFP receives food from all over the world, but in our camp the food is mainly from the United States and the European Union. WFP tries to provide food that is similar to, if not exactly, what the refugees are used to eating in their home countries. In Mwange Camp, WFP typically provides: maize meal (pounded dried corn), sorghum and/or other grains, beans, HEPS (protein supplement), oil and salt. Then, important food items such as vegetables, fruit, nuts, meat and fish are all bought with whatever money the refugees have. These essential foods are available from the refugees who farm and have small businesses of bringing dry fish back from the lakes. Many families decide to sell cooking oil and other parts of their rations in order to have some money to buy these other necessary food items. It’s strange to see all the WFP food for sale, but it’s important that people are trying to eat a more balanced diet, especially when they have been in these camps eating only rations for almost a decade.

The Zambians are located very close to the Camp, however there land is much more fertile than the land given to the refugees. They also have a lot more land per person. Thus, the Zambians in this area live off the land and sell their surplus to buy supplemental foods. From my experience it seems that sometimes this puts the Zambians in a better nutritional position and sometimes not. I have seen just as many children with distended bellies, discolored hair and skinny legs/arms in the refugee camps as I have outside of them.

I have had a few chances to help cultivate on a Zambian farm and it’s not easy work. They use the hand-made hoes and digging sticks to work the fields; I have never seen any form of mechanical equipment in these very rural areas. Fertilizer and good seeds are used when they can afford them. They grow a lot of maize, cassava (a root that I would describe as a cross between a carrot and a potato), ground nuts (like peanuts), sugar care, all different types of beans, rice, sorghum, pumpkins and other vegetables like onions, tomatoes and cabbage. As you can see, there is not much to provide them with calcium or protein. There are home-raised chickens, ducks and goats, so they can eat their eggs and have their milk. However, they only eat these animals maybe a few times a year if they are rich enough.

I hope that helps a little in understanding the food situation here. Don't hesitate to ask me to write about things! I don't mind at all.

xoxo