Prisca is one of the mothers in the village. She has six children. Her husband lost his job due to the lack of tourists in Tanzania as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. She has no other source of income to buy food for her family.
Prisca spent the better part of the day gathering firewood to sell. Due to excessive deforestation in the country over the previous century, Tanzania now has a law that restricts wood gathering. Only dead trees may be collected; no living trees may be cut down. Because of the high demand for wood for food preparation and brick curing, dead wood is difficult to find. The most common source of wood are those trees that have been knocked over by elephants.
This was a good day, but it took several hours of hard work for Prisca to gather this amount of wood. She then has to carry her heavy load at least two miles back to her home. This large bundle will earn Prisca somewhere between 3,000 – 4,000 Tanzanian shillings – or about US$1.50 to $2.00.
Prisca’s story is not unique. It repeated each day by many women in the village.