FIELD REPORT TO ZIMBABWE 15 – 20 DECEMBER, 2002

The following extract is from a field report written by the ACT Co-ordinating Office's Africa Appeals Officer, John Nduna, while on a recent visit to Zimbabwe to take part in the ACT Disaster Management Training Course at the Africa University in Mutare. As such, his time spent with the two ACT members in the country (Christian Care and Lutheran Development Service - LDS) were limited.

ACT - FIELD REPORT TO ZIMBABWE 15 – 20 OCTOBER, 2002

By John Nduna

Zimbabwe's food crisis has reached alarming proportions with the south and southwest areas of the country worst affected. The total food availability in the country from government sources, World Food Program and NGOs is simply not sufficient to cover the over 6 million people requiring food aid. Even people with some cash income are finding it difficult to find food especially maize as it is hardly available on the market. The result of such a situation is long queues for maize or maize meal in urban areas like Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and other towns. In the rural areas, you hardly see any queues as the maize for buying is simply not available and peoples’ hopes are on the relief food provided by the International community. In most cases, this relief food is not readily available due to erratic supply, resulting from importation difficulties. The government has only allowed a limited number of NGOs to be involved in the relief food distribution in the country. Recently, more NGOs were de-registered from food distribution making the situation to meet peoples’ needs even more difficult.

High inflation in the country has worsened the situation. The Zimbabwe dollar is now officially pegged at 65 Zim dollars to US $1, while on the black market the US dollar is fetching as much as between 700 – 800 Zim dollars. The price of food and other goods are simply beyond the reach of the majority of the poor families whose incomes have been severely reduced.

Chinoita village in Mutare district has a population of about 2,000 people. The village is not covered by the World Food Program relief programs or any of the humanitarian Non Governmental Organizations responding to the food crisis in the country. However, I was informed by the villagers I spoke to that the government through its Food Grains Board delivers 20 fifty kg bags of maize per month for the whole village of 2000 people. One of the villagers told me "this is even more painful to us than if they did not bring the 20bags at all". A group of women showed me what they normally survive on. This was a syrup-like substance which they make from pounding a certain wild fruit. One woman explained, "for a meal, an adult would take three spoons of this and then drink a lot of water until the stomach felt full". Most commonly eaten wild fruits have run out and people are now experimenting eating other wild fruits they had never eaten before like the sausage tree fruits. These are harvested when they are very young and tender and cooked. Again after eating this, water is a big part of the meal to fill up the stomach. The women take the risk to first it the wild fruits so that if they were poisonous, they would be the ones to suffer the consequences. The nutritional status of the people were visibly very poor with most adults looking far much older that actual ages. The school going children were worse off and most had stopped attending school. In the Marange area of Mutare, Christian Care had however a supplementary feeding program for the under 5 children. One Christian Care staff said to me, " it is sad when you see a very hungry 7 year old child bring her under five brother or sister to feed and yet all she could do was watch the little one eat while she was hungry herself".

As a result of the hunger situation in the Marange area, prostitution is very rampant as women would rather sale their bodies to get a little bit of food which they would share with their family members. As a result, of the high levels of prostitution the cases of HIV/AIDS cases were reported to have been very high in the area. Even people with a little bit of money such as teachers and nurses working in the rural areas could not find food to buy because it was hardly available.

At one point on the Masvingo, Mutare road, a truck carrying maize bags had a few bags accidentally drop of the truck. In no time people appeared from the nearby villages and within minutes there was not a single grain that could be seem on the ground. But children hang around the area little longer hoping another truck would drop some more bags of maize like the previous truck. But, it was not to be.

In Zvamapela village, Mberengwa district in the Midlands province the village was basically empty of people at the time I visited on the 15^th October 2002. I was told people go out in the morning to look for food. Most go in the bush to gather a fruit called amarula used to make an alcoholic drink. Once they gathered enough of this fruit, they sell it and use the money to look for food. However, this village was one of the lucky ones as it was receiving relief food from the ACT member, Lutheran Development Services (LDS). Each household was getting a 50kg bag of maize once a month. Although this was not enough maize to see the households to the end of the month, it greatly assisted the families to survive. The average family size was said to have been between 6 to 9 people. At one household, we found an old man called Valla Dube with his grandson aged 4 years. I asked him where everyone in the family had gone and he told me they had gone to look for vegetables, which he said at that moment they had been living on as their maize had run out. He showed me the grains storage which was completely empty.

Apart from the lack of food, the rural areas most affected by last seasons’ drought also lack sufficient water for human and animal consumption. In Mberengwa, six villages had to depend on one well for all their water needs including their livestock. LDS is now working with the communities to build dams in the area.

ACT MEMBERS PROGRAMS:

In Zimbabwe, there are two ACT members responding to the current food crisis; the Lutheran Development Services (LDS) and Christian Care (CC). The LDS program covers 6 districts in Matabeleland Province and Midlands Province with a target population of 8,000 families and 52,000 school children. Christian Care programs are only in 2 districts, Gutu in Masvingo and Umguza in Bulawayo. However, CC is involved in a huge relief operational program with the World Food Program (WFP) covering 11 districts. In addition, CC has a supplementary feeding program for under five children in the Mutare district.