Zimbabwe

After gaining independence in 1980, Zimbabwe flourished in the areas of health, education and agriculture—becoming known at its height as “the breadbasket of Africa” because of its major food exports to many African countries. But for all its promise and economic potential, the country could not hold up under widespread corruption and social chaos. In recent years, the country’s increasing economic deficit and astronomical inflation rates have resulted in a near-total breakdown in infrastructure and basic service delivery including food security, education and healthcare. In 2008/09 schools closed for an entire year and even hospitals shut their doors, collapsing many ARV AIDS treatment programs and costing thousands of lives. Shortages of food and clean water forced people into desperation and sparked a severe cholera outbreak. Though they are now re-instated, NGOs were officially banned from operating in Zimbabwe at a time when they were most needed.

In the midst of it all, Hands at Work found divinely opened doors and work began in 2008 in the Mutare slum community of Sakuvba, home to the infamous “Tsunami” that saw the shanty homes of the area’s poorest people intentionally bulldozed and destroyed to “clean up” the city.

A unity government instituted in mid-2009 has brought some calm to Zimbabwe and created a window of opportunity to expand operations outside Mutare. Expansion has since spread into the nearby rural region and further expansion plans include Masvingo, Bulawayo and Binga.

Offering Hope

“She breathes in smoke and coughs painfully as she stokes the fire to cook the small amount of porridge that, supplemented by a few beans, is the daily meal for 13 mouths. Mary is twelve years old, her face is swollen from an as yet undiagnosed illness, and she suffers from tuberculosis. She sleeps on the floor, pressed up against her 8 siblings, her 3 nieces and nephews, and her mother, all of whom lives in a small one-room house in Sakubva, a slum area of Mutare, Zimbabwe. Her mother, Grace, has full-blown AIDS, her brother, Farai, is also showing signs of TB, and her niece, Sharon, has worms. Despite the fractured healthcare system in Zimbabwe, there is help available at the clinic, but only for those who can afford the five US dollar consultation fee for each patient: an impossible sum for Grace who, if she is able to find odd jobs from the neighbours, is only paid one US dollar per day. Grace outlines the challenges she faces in caring for Mary and the others: “I am troubled. I cannot look after my children. They are sick. I cannot clothe my children, food is a problem, so is the rent and electrical charges... Everything is on me since their father died.” The sense of isolation, exhaustion, and helplessness that Grace describes and portrays is not easily imagined.

It is into this context that Hands at Work wants to help bring hope by supporting local volunteers who breakdown this isolation by practically demonstrating love and compassion through visiting, providing food to the most vulnerable children, and advocating for the most vulnerable members of their community. Since starting in 2008, the local community organisation in Sukubva has been doing just this: offering hope and renewal into people’s lives that recently have too often only witnessed suffering decline.