Zimbabwe

After its 1980 independence, 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 severe breakdown in infrastructure and basic service delivery including food security, education and healthcare. In 2008, cholera spread through Zimbabwe into neighboring countries, claiming thousands of lives and further exacerbating the desperate situation of the lives of the people.

NGOs were officially banned from operating in Zimbabwe in 2008. This corresponded to one of the country’s most desperate times, and Hands at Work was able to make its first movements into the country through its base in Mozambique and relationships with Christian leaders across Zimbabwe. Late that year work was initiated 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.

When Hope Comes

In Mutare, Zimbabwe, there is much need for hope. But in a country where the money has become valueless and schools and hospitals are closing daily, it is hard to imagine an avenue by which hope might enter.

A partially blind sixty-five-year old grandmother stays in her one-room house in Sakubva, the poorest area in Mutare, with fourteen orphaned children. Most of these are the children of her five children who have passed away, unable to receive medical treatment in the ever-diminishing healthcare system. Though the children have found refuge and a roof over their heads with the grandmother, finding food is a daily battle.

Every day the children go out to beg for food or money in the streets, looking for enough to get through the day. One of the grandmother’s children was bitten by a dog while begging in the streets for food. With no healthcare system, much less money to pay for it, the child’s infected wound is left untreated. Another girl says the worst danger she faces is that when she begs in the market, men don’t even want to give her an orange unless she offers sex.

The political situation in Zimbabwe has blocked access to basic food or education. The circumstances are beyond desperate. But the people have each other. The newly formed home-based care in Mutare makes only a small dent in this wall of poverty, but by visiting those in their community and feeding some of the poorest children, the volunteers can infuse hope. And in a country where there is less and less everyday, hope can go a long way.