My name is Sister Celina, and I live in a distant village about 35 km from the nearest town. I don’t speak Portuguese or English, but I hope you can understand the pain I am going through. I am 42 years old, a farmer, and I have a husband, with whom I have 5 children. Our life has been very difficult, filled with challenges that seem endless.
I suffer from constant pain in my back, which prevents me from doing even the simplest tasks, like taking care of my children. My husband works in other people’s fields, trying to support our family, but the lack of health and basic resources has been a constant struggle. The drought is worsening every day, and hunger is spreading throughout our village. Prices are rising, and work is becoming increasingly scarce. Everyone here faces the same problems: hunger, drought, and the lack of clean water.
It has been 11 months since it last rained in our village. Every day, we pray to God for a miracle, so that we can at least have one meal a day. We are losing hope. We have reached the point of having to pull our children out of school, because they need to help us at home, looking for ways to earn any small amount of money.
There are days when none of us have enough water to drink or wash ourselves, because the place where we fetch water is far away, and the conditions are very difficult. The situation has become unsustainable. We humbly ask for help to feed our children. We are starving, and we feel as though we have done something wrong to make the rain stop falling.
