The drought in Zambia
Zambia is currently experiencing one of its worst drought in nearly 40 years. The situation is particularly severe in the Southern, Western and Eastern provinces, where it is currently estimated that 2.3 million people are facing food insecurity and are in need of immediate assistance.
What does it mean for Lendwithcare entrepreneurs ?
Unfortunately our Lendwithcare entrepreneurs are not immune to the effects of this drought. The rain forecast, thankfully, is expected to follow normal seasonal patterns at the end of this year and into early 2020. However, we will only really know the impact on livelihoods when the local farmers start harvesting their crops around April 2020.
We have been in touch with our local partner in Zambia and they told us that they are currently assessing the impact of the drought on their clients’ lives and businesses. They do know that a number of their clients in the worst affected areas have resorted to having just one meal a day to ration food supplies or are actively seeking help from relatives living in other areas and in these instances they have taken the decision to restructure loan repayment schedules and in some cases write off the loan entirely. We are working with our partner to identify any Lendwithcare-funded clients who may need additional support and as soon as we have this information, we will share it with you. During these times, we always follow the advice of our local partner who works very closely with the communities we support and if they do decide to write-off any Lendwithcare-funded loans, we will inform all lenders who will be affected.
CARE's response to the drought
CARE International is already providing humanitarian assistance in districts affected by the drought in Southern Province and hope to extend this to the Western and Eastern Province. Nancy from the Lendwithcare team will be visiting Zambia in January 2020 and we hope to be able to give you a further update in due course.