Victims of Tanzanian hailstorm get aid

AllAfrica.com, via The Citizen (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania): The Government has handed over 207 tonnes of food to residents of Machame in Hai district following the destruction of their farms by heavy downpour early this year. Speaking during the hand over, the Hai district commissioner Dr Norman Sigalla said the food will be allocated to 510 families who were victims of the hailstorm.

During the February 7 downpour, some 3,009 villagers at Machame on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro were affected through the destruction of their farms and houses. According to the DC, each family will get 68 kilogrammes of maize. The families in question had their coffee, banana and tomato farms destroyed during the rains.

Maize is the leading staple food for most of the villagers in Kilimanjaro region. However, the crop is grown on the lowlands or purchased through the sale of banana, coffee and vegetables….

Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, taken from British Airways flight by Charles J. Sharp, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2