* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Before you arrive at the Portomani village kitchen in Quthing, not only can you smell the vegetables being cooked and prepared for preservation you can also hear the sound of the cooks singing songs about how their lives have changed thanks to the Red Cross.
Quthing in the south eastern district of Lesotho has a population of 100,000 (check). In the past it has been struggling to cope with the spread of HIV/AIDs and TB and the changing weather conditions from drought, heavy rainfall and even snow – all of which prevent the land producing crops. These combined forces of diseases and inhospitable climate make it almost impossible for the vulnerable people in the community to survive.
However, the community kitchen has become a sign of hope for the local people. Silvia Nkuebe, a 35 year old Red Cross Food Security Project Officer has been part of the Integrated Home Based Care and Food Security Programme, which aims to build resilience to HIV and food insecurity for the most vulnerable people in the four districts of Lesotho.
“The best thing about my role is being able to train up lead gardeners – introduce them to sustainable farming practices and provide them with the tools and seeds to improve their livelihoods. It’s great to see how the Red Cross is making a difference” explains Silvia. She has already seen a 50 per cent increase in the number of lead gardeners – Red Cross volunteers who show members of their community how to look after keyhole gardens – from 12 when the programme began in 2009 to 27 in 2011 and they are still recruiting.
Inside the kitchen the locals are gathered together each with an allocated task whether that be washing and peeling the home grown tomatoes, chopping the onions, heating the tomatoes while adding herbs and spices or sterilising the jars in preparation for the preservation. Everybody has a part to play and together they enjoy singing songs, ‘soul food’ in the making. “It’s so much fun making food that we now will last a long time especially when the weather becomes too unreliable and we have poor yields” says Masebolelo, one of the 78 year old beneficiaries in the village.
Recycled jars are being prepared with tomato jam, ‘joalo-joalo’ (a seasonal soup) and vegetable achea (a popular stew made with carrots and spinach. “My favourite is tomato jam. It’s so easy to make with a simple recipe and tastes sweet and savoury. It’s great with some bread” comments Silvia. The food preservatives were a success story waiting to happen. They are made using locally grown vegetables from packets of seeds provided by the Red Cross.
Outside the kitchen the fields are beginning to show signs of green shoots as the vegetables start to grow. Beetroots, carrots, spinach, rape and mustard seeds as we as cabbages and apple trees have all been planted. “It hasn’t always been like this” explains Mapapali Tsasanyane, 55 from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. “The district has faced many years of limited crop yields. However with the help of organisations such as the Red Cross farmers are now able to grow vegetables using innovative keyhole gardens which are able to use even the limited amounts of water to support crops all-year-round”. The government works in partnership with the Lesotho Red Cross by providing transport so that local people can attend the Red Cross workshops which demonstrate sustainable agricultural practices. “I feel proud to work in partnership with the Red Cross on its home based care and food security programme. The staff and volunteers that I have worked with are very professional and efficient in helping the most vulnerable. I have been so impressed that I’m sure when I retire in the future I too will become a food security volunteer for the Red Cross”
This blog is part of AlertNet’s Solutions for a Hungry World story package. It first appeared on the British Red Cross website.
