WHY WE HAVE TO HELP ZIMBABWE
The Voice supports Christian Aid’s campaign to bring aid to the devastated African nation

CHARITY CHRISTIAN Aid is launching a major appeal for Zimbabwe on June 8. Millions of Zimbabweans are in urgent need of humanitarian aid if they are ever to recover from the economic crisis of the last decade.

Zimbabweans are bracing themselves for another year of food insecurity; expectations are bleak from the recent main harvest and the coming winter wheat crop.

“This money is desperately needed now so that we can act in time for the next planting season,” says William Anderson, Christian Aid’s country manager in Harare.

dependency

“We must help people get back on their feet, help them grow more food and break the cycle of dependency. The money we receive will go towards providing seeds and tools and emergency rations to the totally destitute.”

Zimbabwe was once a thriving agricultural exporter. Now, per capita, Zimbabwe is the most food aid dependent country in the world. The UN’s World Food programme believes that seven million people are in need of food assistance – roughly 65 percent of the population.

If people have inputs, such as seeds and fertiliser, and training in good time, they will save time and money which can be used on other goods, especially food. Christian Aid may also provide seed protection rations, that is food aid given with the seeds in an effort to prevent the seeds being eaten rather than planted.

In recent reports, humanitarian agencies have warned that unless factors such as chronic food insecurity are addressed, further cholera outbreaks are inevitable.

infrastructure

The number of cholera cases reached 100,000 in the last week of May, according to the United Nations. More than 4,000 people have died. The cholera epidemic was triggered in part by the breakdown in the country’s infrastructure and healthcare system, as well as a chronic shortage of clean water. More than 50 percent of all children who have died from cholera were malnourished.

Anthrax, TB, malaria, and diarrhoea are all present in the country at unprecedented levels. These are all due to the failed state, malnutrition and HIV. Earlier this year, Christian Aid’s partner, the Zimbabwe Project Trust (ZimPro), received a £50,000 emergency grant to respond to the cholera outbreak in the most densely populated areas of the capital, Harare.

ZimPro has been holding public health and hygiene promotion sessions and distributing non-food items such as soap, cotton and disinfectants. It is also drilling boreholes in areas where there is little or no clean water.

Christian Aid and ZimPro have also been pioneers in spreading conservation farming methods in Zimbabwe to counter the chronic food shortages. These methods focus on conserving natural resources of soil and water, which result in improved and sustainable production.

They are particularly suitable for farmers in areas where the soil is poor. ZimPro has had a project for the last few seasons in the arid region of Matabeleland, in southern Zimbabwe.

In many cases the results have been remarkable, with farmers producing yields double or triple those of farmers not practising conservation agriculture.