ZIMBABWE

With inflation exceeding 4,500 percent—some reports put the figure nearer eight thousand percent—currency no longer buys food and medical care in Zimbabwe. There is little food due to drought and poor harvests, and the collapse of civil infrastructure has meant basic services are no longer available to the majority of Zimbabweans. Christian churches in the country, however, are fighting poverty, hunger and HIV/AIDS among Zimbabwe's decimated communities and helping to meet the basic day to day needs, says UK Christian relief agency Tearfund. According to Peter Grant, Tearfund's international director, “People are dying. It's the very young, the very old, and those with AIDA who are the most vulnerable. As the year goes on with the continuing food shortages, we can expect the situation to get worse, and more people to die.” Tearfund says that even if people could afford to go to hospital, there are no longer medical supplies to treat them. HIV and Aids related illnesses have compounded the suffering, leaving many unable to work in fear and isolation. Unemployment is over eighty percent and those that can find casual work often do so for small amounts of food. Others search around for vegetables to supplement meager amounts of maize, getting by on one inadequate meal a day. Because of the lack of food over the last five years many of Zimbabwe's children suffer from chronic malnutrition and an increasing number are too sick to go to school. Tearfund has supported church involvement in relief, development and social justice in Zimbabwe for over twenty-five years. (Tearfund)