Zimbabwe

Blog Post:  Posted November 2, 2009, 10:45 am by Cully Lundgren

A land where fifty thousand dollars used to buy you nothing

Country: Zimbabwe

Last week, Mercy Corps' Boston office (actually located in Cambridge) was fortunate to host our Zimbabwe Country Director, Rob Maroni. Rob had recently gone to Mercy Corps' Senior Leadership Meeting in Portland, Oregon, and stopped in Boston on his way back to Zimbabwe. We hold small events that are open to the public, to highlight and bring to life some of the great work that Mercy Corps engages in with communities around the world.

At the beginning of his presentation, Rob passed around a stack of fifty-thousand dollar bills (Zimbabwe dollars) to each person in the room. He went on to note that even when they were still using local currency in Zimbabwe — transactions these days are made either in U.S. dollars or South African Rand — fifty thousand dollars was worth virtually nothing.

I can't remember the exact amount, but it was something along the lines of 1/100,000 of a penny. Coming from the U.S., where inflation of what seems like anything more than three percent gets people jittery about the future of the economy, that kind of rampant inflation just seems so foreign. We heard stories that during the worst inflation time several years ago, you might have to carry a whole bag full of cash just to buy some food. Wow!

In Zimbabwe, we have a range of programmes including water and sanitation, working with orphans and vulnerable children, food and livelihood security, urban programming (including supporting city gardens for vulnerable communities) and programmes promoting the protection and rights of people with disabilities.

Since the days of hyper-inflation, the economy has improved. But huge struggles remain, and there has been a cost. Over the past ten years, almost every indicator on the Human Development Index (HDI) has plummeted. Life expectancy is now among the lowest in Africa — largely due to the HIV/AIDS crisis — and the percentage of kids who can read is much lower than it was ten or fifteen years ago.

Mercy Corps is committed to our work in Zimbabwe, partnering with communities to improve people's lives despite the huge obstacles that remain. We look forward to a day when conversations about Zimbabwe will be less about how far £30,000 dollars can go, and more about how 50,000 vulnerable children have received an education and a better chance in life.

Blog Post:  Posted October 2, 2009, 8:40 pm by Nancy Lindborg

A chance for the people of Zimbabwe

Country: Zimbabwe

Topics: Peaceful Change, Livelihoods, Hunger, Food/Nutrition, Emergencies, Economic Development, Civil Society

This week I had the honor of testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Zimbabwe, along with representatives from the State Department, USAID, the Treasury Department and several think tanks. As the sole representative of an international humanitarian organisation, I focused my remarks on how to advance recovery and reconstruction efforts in the country.

We have an important opportunity to help support the nascent progress of a country that has spiraled into collapse over the last decade. The changes that we have witnessed in Zimbabwe since the advent of the Unity Government in February of this year have been important — improvements to the economy, a vastly improved working environment for non-governmental organisations and a real grassroots desire for positive change. During my trip this summer to Zimbabwe, I saw growing glimmers of hope and increased optimism in the communities I visited.

Most important has been the stabilization of an economy that at one point reached a daily inflation rate of more that 100,000 percent! As one man expressed to me, “You have no idea what it is like to wake up with some money, enough to buy bread for your children, but then you can’t find the bread. The shops are not able to stock their shelves due to inflation. Finally, at the end of the day you find the bread, but you can no longer afford it as the price has tripled.”

Zimbabweans experienced vital relief when the economy was dollarized in February 2009, enabling shops to stock goods. As a result, life for many — although not all — is returning to greater normalcy.

Food shortages, food insecurity, cholera — these are humanitarian crises in Zimbabwe that will return without a more concerted effort to address the systemic failures. As I told the Senators, the challenge today is to move beyond the series of humanitarian band-aids we have been applying and begin supporting the early recovery and reconstruction of Zimbabwe.

There was remarkable consensus among my think tank co-panelists that now is the time to re-engage with Zimbabwe. Make the bet on the best option available right now for Zimbabweans. Help them move in the right direction and help them avoid the ravages of the recent humanitarian disasters.

I applaud Senator Feingold and Senator Isakson for holding this important hearing and strongly hope the United States will push forward with important, incremental assistance. The courageous people of Zimbabwe deserve this chance.

You can read my full testimony to the Senate here.

Posted September 15, 2009

Shipping Books to Zimbabwe Schools

Country: Zimbabwe

Topics: Education, Youth

It's hard to learn in Africa's schools without a basic textbook.

A recent UNICEF study in Zimbabwe reported there can be as few as one textbook for as many as 40 students in schools there — if there are any textbooks at all.

We shipped a 40-foot container of donated books to Goromonzi District, Mutare and Chitungwiza areas of Zimbabwe. One thousand high-school math books. Hundreds of elementary-level texts on reading drills and language skills. Dozens of university textbooks on science, engineering and economics.

We put a total of 21,000 books into the hands of eager schoolchildren. In fact, our shipment improved eightfold the textbook-to-student ratio in 50 schools.

It's all part of our effort to ensure access to essential and quality education for 12,000 orphans and other vulnerable children in Zimbabwe. One of the ways we do that is by furnishing schools in exchange for waiving tuition fees for poor children.

These textbooks are boosting teachers' morale and feeding the minds of children hungry to learn. Help us do more with a donation to our shipping appeal. Your $1 sends £42 worth of medicines, books, clothing and other critical supplies to people in need.

Blog Post:  Posted August 15, 2009, 8:54 am by Neal Keny-Guyer

Big smiles abound

Country: Zimbabwe

Topics: Water/Sanitation

Water is the key to a good life in Zimbabwe. I am in southeastern Zim, near Mozambique. It is a dry area prone to drought, especially in the past 25 years — climate change perhaps? Farmers barely subsist, earning less than $2/day. Eight months ago this area was ravaged by cholera. I watched as a new irrigation scheme for 300 families was launched. As water filled the canals, women danced and sang. I joined in, proud that Mercy Corps had helped transform these lives. With reliable water, these families will earn $6/day, more than tripling their previous plight ....

Everyone in Zimbabwe seems to smile — despite living in one of the poorest countries. And I mean, BIG SMILES! Despite 1 in 4 children being orphans, mostly because of HIV. Despite having a life expectancy under 40. Despite a fragile and shaky political situation. Makes me want to smile as well — a BIG SMILE.

I often feel that I receive way more than I give. That's especially true here.

Blog Post:  Posted August 12, 2009, 2:08 pm by Neal Keny-Guyer

Zimbabwe, a land of paradox

Country: Zimbabwe

I'm in Zimbabwe, a land of paradox. Among the world's lowest life expectancies of 37 years. That's right - 37!

The world's highest orphan population per capita.... Also, a land of the warmest smiles. A land of sheer beauty that beckons for visitors. And now a place that offers some reasonable hope with the national unity govt. To be sure, Zim faces daunting political and social challenges. Still, the country may be down, but don't count it out.

Posted December 10, 2008

Responding to Zimbabwe's Cholera Epidemic

Country: Zimbabwe

Mercy Corps is helping prevent the further spread of cholera in Zimbabwe by ramping up our health and hygiene promotion activities and looking for opportunities to deliver clean water, provide portable sanitation facilities and procure supplies such as soap, feminine hygiene products and similar items.

Your donation can help us expand our existing health-promotion activities and supply families with items they need to avoid of the epidemic.

The death toll has reached nearly 1,200 and the number of suspected cases have climbed to 23,712, according to UNICEF.

"As soon as the rainy season really starts, which should be any day now, the WHO is expecting a massive increase in cholera," said Rob Maroni, who directs Mercy Corps' Zimbabwe programmes from the capital, Harare. "At present, they're predicting 60,000 cases."

So far, Mercy Corps has integrated hygiene education into all our programmes, distributed water-purification tablets, oral rehydration salts, soap and five-gallon buckets to community groups and orphanages. We are providing some small support to district-level Ministry of Health offices and are working with medical supply organisations to secure family hygiene kits. Your donation can help us send additional resources.

Please make a gift today to our Zimbabwe Cholera Fund to help families affected by the epidemic.

Posted November 17, 2008

Tough Choices

Country: Zimbabwe

Topics: Economic Development

Naison and his friends are spending the afternoon fishing on the banks of southeastern Zimbabwe's Save River, hoping to catch a trout or an eel to bring home to their families. They are using the mosquito netting from Naison's home as a makeshift fishing net.

This netting is supposed to protect him and his siblings from malaria infection. Naison knows the danger: Earlier this year, he contracted a case of the debilitating disease. But when there's no food and no money to speak of, the nets are needed more for fishing than disease prevention.

Hard choices

Zimbabwean families are facing hard, even unimaginable choices these days.

Unemployment rates are soaring. Even wage earners face crippling inflation rates, which have reached an astounding 231 million percent, according to the government's own figures. Under these conditions, it is extremely difficult to purchase food, let alone save money.

You can help protect Naison and others like him from the worst effects of Zimbabwe's ongoing economic meltdown.

Strengthening food security

Mercy Corps is helping vulnerable families in three impoverished districts in Zimbabwe to set up communal gardens that will benefit the entire community. We're teaming with local government officials to offer training on how best to prepare the soil and keep out pests, and supplying families with vegetable and herb seeds.

The goal is to let the people who tend to the gardens use the spinach, squash, mint and rosemary for their own cooking — and then sell the surplus to pay for other household needs.

Naison is excited. The garden his sister is tending will be growing his favorite vegetable: cabbage. And it means less time worrying over makeshift fishing nets or where his next meal is coming from. Instead, many meals to come will be harvested from gardens tilled and tended to by the hands of his family and his community.

Children like Naison are especially hard-hit by the ongoing economic crisis. Your generous donation offers real solutions to help make their lives easier.

Posted April 3, 2008

Untrammeled Spirit

Country: Zimbabwe

Topics: Women's Empowerment, Education, Economic Development, Children

Tryphine Chikabida lost her father when she was seven years old, then her house at age 12. But today, still just 14 years old, she is striving to persevere despite the considerable difficulties of life in Zimbabwe. Mercy Corps is connecting her to the help she needs to overcome the challenges thrown her way at such an early age.

Tryphine lives on the outskirts of Mutare, a sprawling city in eastern Zimbabwe that is the country's fourth-largest urban area. She said that life was once "rosy" for her and her family, because her father was employed and able to provide the food, school fees and housing to take care of the family. But illness took him in 2000, leaving Tryphine and her mother to fend for themselves in Zimbabwe's worsening economy.

They managed to make ends meet, living alongside hundreds of other poor families in Sakubva township, an agglomeration of makeshift houses and shelters on Mutare's periphery. Life wasn't easy there, a place teeming with migrants and street children, but they had a roof over their heads.

Then, in 2005, they lost even that small measure of security. Zimbabwe's government began carrying out Operation Murambatsvina - a local-language word that ignominiously means "drive out rubbish." Thousands of shantytowns on the outskirts of Zimbabwe's cities were bulldozed with little warning, leaving their already-poor residents with neither shelter nor anywhere else to turn.

The United Nations estimates that Operation Murambatsvina has affected at least 2.4 million people - including Tryphine and her mother, Juliet.

After their home was razed, Tryphine and her mother moved to the courtyard of a local bar. They did not have anywhere to go nor did she have the money to rent a room for her family.

Meanwhile, Tryphine was forced out of school because of inability to pay school fees and other related costs. In the last few days before she left, the school's mentor indicated that Tryphine's performance at school was poor - similar to other vulnerable children in the area, who often perform poorly at school due to stress, fatigue and hunger.

Rebuilding their lives

In 2006, after a visit to the area by Mercy Corps field staff, Tryphine was registered for the Mercy Corps Education programme under the Joint Initiative for Urban Zimbabwe. Seven global humanitarian agencies, led by Mercy Corps, are working in Zimbabwe's cities to restore the dignity and reduce the suffering of 12,000 households. Mercy Corps oversees implementation of the project and also manages the project's educational component, which is directed at helping 1,400 orphans and vulnerable children.

Tryphine now receives a school fee waiver, which allows her to attend her school for two years. Her school receives textbooks, supplies and other material support. The addition of new textbooks, in particular, improved the quality of education at Tryphine's school: previously, up to 12 students in a class had to share a single textbook.

Tryphine is also a regular attendee at a Mercy Corps-funded support centre in the neighborhood, where she receives counselling, homework tutoring and other services. Her mother, Juliet, has joined another programme component, a savings-and-loan group. With training and other assistance, she recently opened a small vegetable stall and now brings in a steady family income.

Today, Tryphine is striding past the obstacles of the last several years. Juliet is ecstatic about the programmes they have been able to access through Mercy Corps.

"Mercy Corps' intervention came at a time we had lost hope," Juliet says, thoughtfully. "The feeling that there are concerned people who use their precious time and resources to help the most disadvantaged members of the community raises hope and makes the world a better place for children to live in."

With the support of individuals just like you, we are helping more than 100,000 people in Zimbabwe. You can provide children and youth like Tryphine with educational and other critical support by joining our monthly Give for Kids programme. You can choose your donation level. Thank you for your interest.

Posted September 5, 2007 by Cassandra Nelson

Protecting Zimbabwe's AIDS Orphans

Country: Zimbabwe

"Helping orphans and other vulnerable children is a major focus of Mercy Corps' work in Zimbabwe," says Cassandra Nelson, Mercy Corps agency's senior global media officer, in this audio slideshow, which traces her recent trip to one of Africa's most troubled countries. Travel along to learn how we're helping parentless children get the support and education they need and deserve.