Drought pushes families to the brink in Zambia

During a visit to Kagoro Primary School in Zambia, grandmother Euphrasia Banda sat opposite me. You could see she had a lot on her mind. Her children – two sons and three daughters – had recently moved to urban areas to look for work, leaving their 10 grandchildren in her care. 

“We have no income,” she says. “This drought has pushed us to the edge of our lives. That’s the reason my children decided to go and look for work in town so that they could be sending some money to feed these children.”  

Like millions of Zambians, the 45-year-old widow has felt the disastrous effects of the drought that has ravaged the country’s agricultural production. Everything she planted during the 2023/2024 farming season succumbed to the heat and lack of rainfall. What she did manage to harvest isn’t enough to feed her family, even for a single week. For the past two months, the family – who all live in Euphrasia’s single-roomed home – has had nothing to eat but unripe mangoes or maize bran gathered from the community mill.  

Drought is creating severe food insecurity 

This drought during the 2023/2024 rainfall season was the worst experienced in 40 years. Dry conditions have ruined crops, scorched pasture for livestock and threatened the availability of water. In February 2024, the president declared a national disaster. Today, an estimated 5.6 million people are expected to experience “Crisis” levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3) or worse – more than a 200% increase compared to the same time period the previous year. 

When it has rained, it was often accompanied by strong winds and lightning that have taken lives. Or the rainfall has been more than the parched earth can tolerate, resulting in flash floods that damage crops further and increase the risk of waterborne diseases like cholera.  

The historic drought has less obvious effects too. In October 2024, Zambia was plunged into darkness by the worst electricity blackout in living memory. Up to 84% of Zambia’s electricity is sourced from water reservoirs and dangerously low levels meant that there wasn’t enough water to run the hydroelectric turbines.  

 Food brings vulnerable children to school 

Mangani, one of Euphrasia’s grandsons, is 15 and attends Kagoro Primary School.  

“There are serious problems at home,” he explains. “When schools are open, we are happy because there is clean and nutritious food at school. It makes me energetic and focused. At home, we don’t eat good food. Sometimes we don’t eat at all. We just fetch mangoes and that’s all. That’s why I want to become president of the nation when I grow up. I want to be giving free food to everyone who doesn’t have food.”  

David Phiri, head teacher of Kagoro Primary School where pupils receive Mary’s Meals every school day, says: “This year alone the number of learners at this school has dramatically increased to more than 1,000 from around 600 pupils because of the Mary’s Meals school feeding program. Every morning, women and men come to my house asking for food. People are starving. [If you] go around the homes, you will find people eating mangoes. That’s their food.” 

School feeding provides a lifeline in Zambia 

Euphrasia prays that the crisis facing Zambians and their neighbors across Southern Africa will soon be over. It will take years of sustained, normal levels of rainfall to allow the agricultural sector and the communities who rely on farming for survival to recover.  

Until then, she continues to rely on Mary’s Meals to feed her grandchildren, in the hope that the simple meal they receive in school may offer a different path towards a brighter future. Euphrasia’s grandchildren are among more than 450,000 schoolchildren in Zambia receiving daily meals cooked by local volunteers as part of Mary’s Meals school feeding program. 

“I don’t know how to thank you, Mary’s Meals. The porridge you feed these children at school is a blessing to me, she says. “When my grandchildren have something to eat, my heart rests.” 

It costs just $25.20 to provide a child with school meals for an entire school year. Mary’s Meals is currently serving nutritious daily meals to more than 1.5 million children in schools across Southern Africa. Now, more than ever, your support is needed to spread the word about our work and the emergency in the region. With your support, we can reach hundreds of thousands more children waiting for our daily meals.