The Visionary: Jessy’s Climate Story

“I came to remind you that climate change is an emergency. As leaders, you need to think deeply and do more to protect the future. It is time leaders at all levels started acting as if your time is almost over and you want the youth to inherit a better world than the one you inherited. Time isn’t waiting for anyone.”

Jessy’s ambitious approach to sustainability isn’t all too unique in her family. Her father is her top inspiration and where her activism journey began. Before she was born, he planted some acacia trees to protect their grass-thatched house from strong winds. And at the age of 10, after windy torrents blew a grass thatch off their family home, Jessy joined him. She planted her very own tree in their thickening backyard.

But as Jessy has grown older, the environmental challenges facing her family and their entire community have grown too – at a rapid rate.

“Climate change affects us a lot. Crops dry before they mature because we receive too little rainfall. Since the rains stop before our crops are ready for harvesting, we experience hunger every year,”

Nearly 2.6 million Malawians needed urgent food assistance from October to March, reports Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee. Such figures have become a recurring tragedy with the rainy season starting as late as December—instead of October—in Jessy’s lifetime.

"We can no longer tell when the rainy season will start, so we often plant late and lose our crops to dry spells and pest attacks."

Every year the dry season is lasting longer and longer due to the increasing threat of climate change. Now, it spans from August to December and the hand pump on which Jessy’s community relies, dries up daily.

“Some use the water from unprotected wells for drinking, washing clothes, cleaning utensils and cooking. This results in diarrhoea, which affects their lives and productivity. The long search for water also exposes them to sexual violence and breakdowns in marriage as men think women spend hours sleeping around, not fetching water”.

But with the introduction of sustainable farming, communities around the world are taking steps to combat falling water supplies and crop yields in the face of climate change. In vulnerable communities like Jessy’s, Oxfam and our partners are providing resources and training for climate smart agriculture like planting early maturing crops.

If you’d like to support the next generation to continue tackling these challenges and find new ways to end global hunger, consider leaving a gift in your Will to Oxfam.

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