Sinda Independent member of parliament Masauso Tembo says hunger among his constituents is alarming as people spend several nights without eating anything.
In an interview after distributing mealie meal to some wards in his constituency, Tembo, commonly referred to as ‘Kazungula’, said he had no option other than buying mealie meal to distribute in some wards though the consignment was insufficient.
“There is hunger among our communities as people have nothing to eat! And when you see them, you even see that hunger is written on people’s faces! Since these are the people who made me who I am, I decided to scout some little coins to buy mealie meal so that even the little I share can make a difference to the people,” Tembo explained.
He distributed about 300 bags of mealie meal to various wards such as Nyamasonkho, Chilongozi and other wards to mitigate residents’ suffering.
“So far, I have distributed about 300 bags of mealie meal to the people as we targeted ward by ward, but to tell you the truth; the 300 bags we managed to distribute was just a drop in the ocean because it’s nearly everyone in these communities who is affected with hunger! Even some fields indicate that we still have a challenge as some look promising, while most fields, it’s destruction,” he narrated.
Tembo appealed to the PF government to consider providing relief food to his area, saying the last time government, through Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit, gave his constituency only 1,000 bags of maize that were insufficient.
“I know the PF government is working, and as our parent, we still beg and appeal to it to consider our plight such as hunger. We last received about 2,000 bags of maize as a district to which we shared 1,000 each constituency, but the needy people are too many, so we thank our able government of PF under his Excellency President Edgar Chagwa Lungu for the consideration. We still kneel before government to help us with some more bags as a way to cushion the hunger status in these areas,” Tembo pleaded.
He further encouraged the electorate in Sinda to remain hopeful in the PF government as it was doing everything possible to help, adding that he would also continue assisting in own capacity to provide more foodstuffs.
“Be patient, our government is doing all to provide help to us. We have to remember that our government has a lot of areas to look at meaning we are not the only ones hit with hunger, but we have to wait a little bit and even myself, I will not rest as I will keep reminding and asking our government to help us,” appealed Tembo.