Chimuli Clara Lihanda

Chimuli Clara Lihanda was born in Mironje village in 1936. She grew up in a home with five children.

She did not go to school at all because her mother could not afford to pay her school fees. Since she could not get an education, Clara spent her younger years staying at the family home to work.

She helped her family by babysitting for other people in the village and doing small manual jobs.

Later, she got married and moved to Ilesi village, where she and her husband had four children. Her husband had no money and only did small farming jobs, so they could not afford to send any of their children to school. Clara had to spend her days looking for casual work, weeding other people's maize farms just to get food for her children.

Life became much worse after her husband died, leaving the entire family burden on Clara's shoulders. The family went through severe times where they often went to bed hungry, forcing Clara to walk around the village looking for any kind of manual work.

To help their mother get food, all the children had to drop out of school early to join her in doing casual jobs for neighbors.

Today, Clara lives with her four grandchildren and her daughter, who is also a widow and has no job. None of her children ever found stable employment, and the whole family still wanders around looking for daily manual work. Clara became very weak due to old age, high blood pressure, and severe arthritis, making it impossible for her to do heavy work to pay for food or rent.

She came to know about the Mama Ibado Seniors Feeding Program while walking around the village looking for casual labor. She saw the team distributing food, approached them, and explained her struggles at home. The team visited her home to see her situation and officially registered her into the program on September 3, 2024, where she started receiving monthly supplies of flour, rice, sugar, cooking oil, salt, tea leaves, and 12 packets of milk.

"We used to sleep on empty stomachs, and my children had to leave school to look for work, but today we have food every month, and the load has become lighter."

Clara is deeply grateful to Mama Ibado because this food keeps her family alive and has restored her health.

She still needs regular support from donors because she is an old widow living with a widowed daughter and four grandchildren who completely rely on her. With her chronic illnesses, she cannot afford medication or full meals for her grandchildren without this help.