Anita’s Story

When her parents get home from the machamba and Anita gets home from school, they start to prepare the main meal of the day. Anita helps her mother to pound the cassava into flour and to cook the food. A typical meal consists of caracata made from cassava, and a sauce of greens and tomatoes. The family has some animals, including chickens and goats. However, meat is a luxury that they only eat on rare occasions.

Some days, Anita helps her mother to get water for cooking and drinking. Water is one of the things her family worries most about, especially during October and November, which is the end of the dry season. Her family must walk about five hours to get water out of a river. When the river is dry, people dig a hole in the riverbed and wait for water to collect. At the end of the dry season, people wait in long lines to get water from the hole.

The Save the Children, extensionist, Acacio João, lives close to their home. When he arrived in Mahurua, he met with the community and explained that Save the Children was working there to improve nutrition and agriculture. One of the first things he did was set up a community vegetable garden. Anita and her brothers and sisters went everyday to help water the tomatoes, onions, carrots, and kale. When the vegetables were harvested, the community kept a portion of them and sold the rest.

At first, the community was hesitant to start the garden because they thought it would just be extra work, but now after seeing the benefits of the first garden, they have told their friends in other communities. Now, they too want to start vegetable gardens with Save the Children.