Africa-Press – Mozambique. In Mozambique, the average person spends less than 60 meticais per day to live. But this is just a statistic. The fact is that many families live on far less.
On the occasion of World ‘End Poverty’ Day on Sunday, ‘O País’ published the stories of how some people face the daily struggle for survival.
It’s hard to get something to eat. The dishes and rubble in the yard show one side of a family that many do not know. They should be enjoying the sweetness of life, but fate has left them bitter.
“We often go to sleep without having eaten even one meal. It’s hard to guarantee enough food for my kids. When I can, I buy a bag of rice, but it doesn’t last a week. The children are suffering. I have seven children, five of whom are studying, while the other two, the oldest, have dropped out of school,” Lourenço Manhiça complains.
To shelter his family from the elements, Lourenço built a roof with old zinc sheets in a space belonging to a church. But that solution is already under threat, as the owners are already demanding that they leave the plot.
“There are several difficulties I face here, at home, the most critical being the lack of a roof. Even now, we run the risk of being kicked out by the owners of the house where we’ve asked to stay. The space belongs to a church and we’ve been told to leave. We are thin and pale. We have many children, but are unable to support them.”
Bags that are supposed to preserve food are used to store recyclable materials. With little to give, the father of seven wants a better future for them.
“I don’t want my children go through what I’ve gone through in life. I lost my parents when I was young; I grew up suffering in times of war and without access to education. I hope my children will study and get jobs to support their families. Once my children are in a good situation, I hope God will take me,” he says.
But there are those who don’t even have the mercy of having their family around them.
In a makeshift hut surrounded by garbage, Cacilda spends the worst days of her life.
“I cannot stand it! If the government could help me get through this phase, that would be something, because even the family I trusted no longer exists.”
Cacilda’s every day is purgatory. In fact, she was never set in the right direction. In the beginning, everything went well, but with the passage of time, that changed.
“I rented a house once, but over time, I couldn’t pay for it, because they increased the rent and I was sick at the time. When I met this lady, I asked for shelter. She referred me to the head of the block who came to show me this space.”
But there is no money to buy food, and a pain which cannot be cured with monetary amounts.
“My children are already grown up, but I have no contact with them, because I left my father’s house a long time ago, because of the war.”
The fact is that, in the cities of Maputo and Matola, many families live in extreme poverty, lacking access to basic services such as water and electricity, and even food.
According to the National Institute of Statistics 2019/2020 Family Budget Survey, which covered about 13 million families, most of Mozambique’s population continues to live on less than a dollar a day.
By
Edmilson Lambo
