Climate change has a huge impact on the lives of women in Angola

Like in all conditions the price has to be paid by the women. Even if it means it’s because of climate change.

Tehandjila Quessale's heart sank every time her mother sent her to fetch water for their crops, up in the mountains of Angola's southern Huila region.

The 16-year-old had to leave school early and walk three hours to join a long queue of people at the nearest water point.

Since she rarely managed to fill her bucket before dark, she was vulnerable to attacks and was scared.

 A house that was completely destroyed during heavy rains is seen in a village near Lubango in Angola.

She knew of two girls that had been raped walking back to their village late at night, she said.

Huila province has been hit by drought after lack of rain for several years running dried up most water sources and devastated crops across the southern Africa region, where some 45 million people face growing hunger, the United Nations warns.

In addition, most men from the area have migrated to towns and cities in search of work, so it is left to the women to try to fill their children's rumbling stomachs.

Aid workers have said that some young girls are resorting to sex in a desperate quest for money and food.

 'I do my own thing'

"Climate change has a huge impact on the lives of women, especially women and girls of reproductive health age," said Florbela Fernandes, Angola representative for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

Crises caused by extreme weather events disproportionately affect "vulnerable groups".

 Mousaka Fernanda poses for a portrait in a village near Lubango in Angola.

"It also increases their exposure to violence and abuse," she added.

Women make up 80 percent of the people displaced by climate change, according to the UN.

Quessale's 47-year-old mother Mousaka Fernanda has stayed put but has had to shoulder the responsibility of feeding her family on her own as best she could.

Last year, her husband found a job as a security guard in Lubango city, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) away, but barely sends any money.

"When he comes home he finds hunger... and I do my own thing," said Fernanda, feet sinking into the mud as she pulled weeds from her maize field.

The little she had to show of her plants were knee-high and wilted.

Yellowed leaf tips suggested roots were rotting below the surface.

Early marriage

The matriarch's grandfather taught Fernanda to brew sorghum into macau, a popular spirit she makes and sells on weekends.

With barely enough for her and her children, she also has to provide for her own mother who is too weak to fend for herself.

When Fernanda's eldest daughter Domingas Quessale fell pregnant, the pressure proved too much.

Concerned she would not be able to provide for yet another child, Fernanda asked her daughter to move in with her boyfriend -- making them married by status and causing Quessale to drop out of school.

During the drought she would join forces with friends to fetch water in a group.

They were still occasionally harassed and "grabbed" by men on the way, she said.

Husband left, house collapsed

"Girls are particularly vulnerable during times of drought," said Anaina Lourenco, a child protection expert for World Vision Angola.

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On the other side of the valley, Cristina Canaino, 14, was forced to interrupt her schooling after her father turned on his heel in 2018, leaving his wife and five children to fend for themselves.

Without her husband around and unable to pay for school, Jacinta needed her daughter to help.

She ditched class to work the fields of wealthier neighbours in exchange for a few kwanzas.