Limpho Sello
THE Chinese community has donated various goods including grocery hampers to 250 vulnerable people from Quthing at Quthing Pitso house to cushion them from the effects of the El Nino-induced drought that hit Lesotho last year.
The donations were made to 50 people in each of the five constituencies of Quthing on Wednesday.
In his remarks, the political counselor of the Chinese Embassy Zhang Changwei said they felt the need to assist the Lesotho government’s efforts to mitigate the impact of the disaster as they were familiar with many natural disasters back in China.
“The Chinese community is empathetic to the situation here. The Chinese government has provided food aid of 18 million Chinese Yuan (about M38 million), which I believe will help relieve the food shortage experienced by needy Basotho households,” Mr Changwei said.
He said in terms of the China-Africa People to People Friendship Action Framework, the embassy encouraged the Chinese community and individuals to work towards uplifting local people’s livelihoods and promote exchanges and cooperation.
“We have seen that the Chinese community has voluntarily mobilised to respond to the difficulties of some Basotho families and since August with the help from the relevant district administrators, they have given out food and essentials to the most vulnerable families in eight districts in Lesotho,” he said.
He added that so far more than 2000 families had benefited from the assistance.
One of the beneficiaries, Kutloano Mahalika from Sebapala constituency said they were grateful for the food hampers as they experienced poor harvests while some had not even planted crops due to the drought.
“We are very happy and I want to thank them on behalf of other beneficiaries. The Chinese community has showed us that they really care by giving us these goods,” Mr Mahalika said.
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