Chisomo Lamiyoni, 24 years-old, Malawi
I dropped out of school in 2014. I did not have school stationery, clothing and food. I decided to leave school and start searching for a job so I could feed my younger brothers and sisters and buy school supplies for them.
Sometimes, when I am not able to find work for the day, we have to ask our elderly neighbour for help or we go to bed without food. She was my mother’s friend. We are orphans.
It’s difficult for me to find food every day for my younger siblings. I often leave the house early in the morning not knowing what we will eat for the day. My younger sister Jostina is the only one who goes to school and she takes a container to bring some of the porridge from the school feeding programme for our baby brother Aubrey. He’s just two years-old. It is a very difficult life to live.
The children and I are not in good health as we lack decent nutrition. We often get sick and not a day goes by when we do not face hunger.
Eid ul Adha is supposed to be a joyous occasion but sometimes we feel as though we do not have much to celebrate. Last Eid though, we received 5kgs of meat from Islamic Relief and the whole house was alive with happiness. It was the first time we had meat in two years and for an entire week we did not have to worry about looking for food or going to sleep hungry.
Islamic Relief has since provided us with Ramadan food packs and my younger sister also received an Eid gift pack that had school stationery, clothing, school shoes, a new blanket and some snacks. She was overjoyed.
Since we lost our parents, Allah has made Islamic Relief to be our breadwinner and we hope and pray that they continue to help us.
