Group 1 - Risele Chichonge
Click on the links below to contribute to this farmer . You will be re-directed to the appropriate project , where you can click on the donate button. Each farmer has a code that is linked to each specific project - Reg.Code .
Adopt this farmer Reg Code: Mab88/28
Fight for water - Donate Reg.Code : Mab88/85
Inter area visits - Donate Reg Code: Mab88/124
Risele is 47 years old and has got 4 children. She owns 3 goats, 25 chickens, 60 cashew nut trees and 4 banana plants.
The sad story of the life of Risele is really very sad. She and her husband left in 1994 to go to south-Africa to get work there. They left their 2 children with her parents and believed that they will come back soon with a lot of money. While Risele was working in South-Africa the family also had 2 more children. They came to visit home during Christmas times when they had enough money. Then one night she started having very bad dreams about her parents , but she first had to finish her contract job before she could come back home in 2011. When she arrived home, she found that her father was very sick. She only brought her one child with her, because the older girl just started school in South-Africa. On her arrival at home and when her mother saw her, the mother just said that she is tired and then left home. Risele then had no choice than to look after her sick father until he died in 2014. After he died her mother returned home but was also sick. She then had to look after her mother until the mother died in 2015. The big tragedy was that she left her girl, then 6 years old, in South-Africa and then never saw her again. The girl must be 12 years now and is living with her father. Risele would really like to see her child again, but there is nothing that she could do. She remembers that they worked in the Brits area of south-Africa on a strawberry farm for mister Willem. She has no phone number for her ex husband and no way to contact her child. (We had some strawberries in my vehicle. I took some and gave to her. Her eyes shoot full of tears in disbelieve to see strawberries again. )
Risele had a lot of stress in her life. She lost her parents and her child. The people at the church just say that she must forget it and continue with her life. In the meantime there were no food for the children and she was the only one that could do any work, but then in November 2016 everything changed. It was raining and she opened up enough land to plant maize, sorghum, beans and even some tomatoes. She eventually sells some tomatoes and earned her first Mt2000 that she left with her uncle. Then she has sold more tomatoes and got Mt 1090. She used Mt590 for things for the children at school and also gave Mt 500 to her uncle to protect. Now she has got Mt2500 and enough food for the family. This makes her very happy.
When Risele told us her “never forget” story it was about the hungry times in the nineties. They have been eating only roots from a certain tree, because there was nothing else to eat. The problem was that many people would get severe stomach problems when they only eat these roots and nothing else. Their stomachs would first become very big and then later smaller and smaller until they died. Many people died like this during that time. Now life is completely different and even when it is very dry, you can still find food and water somewhere. There are even some small shops where you can buy food when you are hungry and you have got some money.