Tanzania: A family of refugees from DR Congo receive WFP support
Story by Desta Laiser
“[Our] children go to school here in Tanzania,” says Zaid. “They have a safe space to play and interact with their friends. My family gets basic needs including food and shelter.”
He and his wife, Furaha are refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo. They live in the Nyarugusu camp in Kigoma region, where they receive support from the World Food Programme (WFP).
The family recently received maize meal, cooking oil, and yellow split beans as part of their 42-day ration, a contribution from the European Union through WFP.
Like other refugees, they are recipients of food baskets that consist of fortified maize meal, specialized nutritious food, beans, fortified cooking oil and iodized salt.
“My younger children love the specialized nutritious food, it helps improve their health,” says Furaha.
The food rations are not enough, however, the couple say, especially since these have decreased in size in recent months.
In order to ensure a diverse diet for the family, Furaha and Zaid started growing vegetables outside their home. Furaha takes part in a women’s group in the camp, weaving baskets that are sold inside the camps, while Zaid does casual work whenever it becomes available.
WFP works with partners to provide more than 200,000 refugees and asylum seekers with life-saving food assistance to refugees living in the camps in Kigoma region.
The European Union is a long-standing partner of WFP. In 2021, the European Union contributed €3.5 million to WFP to provide food assistance to refugees living in camps in Tanzania. This contribution has enabled WFP to procure essential commodities such as maize meal, vegetable oil and yellow split peas which are part of the food basket.
For Furaha and Zain, food assistance means that they will not suffer from hunger. They both hope the family will continue receiving WFP’s life-saving support until when they are able to return to DRC.
