Hunger is driving people in Bulawayo to pick up discarded grain off the road. Picture: Tearfund
Even by Zimbabwe’s depressing standards, it’s an amazingly awful sight.
As lorries hurtle past, a band of desperate men and women scurry out into the road and start their hunt.
They’re after grains of maize which have dropped off the back of trucks that regularly rumble past.
The vehicles take well-worn routes from the grain marketing board’s silos to private millers who will later turn their cargo into maize meal which will sell at $20 US for 20 kilos – more than a qualified teacher’s monthly salary.
Scavenging
Not too long ago, getting food from the road would have been the province of the pigeons.
But in broken Zimbabwe, it’s ordinary folk who been reduced to scavenging along the pot-holed roads as the country staggers towards a worsening food crisis.
Youngsters play chicken with the traffic while trying to pick up grain. Picture: Tearfund
Hunger doesn’t discriminate by age so even the kids get in on the act after school, playing a deadly game of chicken with the lorries and other traffic.
It says a lot for the state of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe that the actions of the desperate barely register a flicker of interest in passers-by.
They just recognise these are the consequences of the terrible times that most of the 13 million population have to endure.
These pictures, taken recently in Bulawayo by a Tearfund Christian partner, underline the vital importance of our ongoing food programmes in Zimbabwe.
This year, working with the local church, we’ve been able to feed 35,000 people as well as giving them vital emotional and spiritual support.
And if the World Food Programme (WFP) is right, it’s work that’ll face even greater demands.
Rampant inflation
WFP reckons that the current figure of two million people in need of food will rise to more than five million by the start of next year – about 45 per cent of the population.
It also estimates 28 per cent of children under five are already chronically malnourished.
Zimbabwe has been facing a worsening food crisis for the last six years and there are few glimmers of hope.
The country’s economy remains a basket case. Inflation is measured in hundreds of millions of per cent. Cash is in short supply and what is available is about as much use as Monopoly money when it comes to buying power.
There’s little point going into a supermarket unless you fancy some exercise walking up and down empty aisles looking for food.
Many children are facing empty bowls as the food crisis bites. Picture: Tearfund
The situation outside the cities is even worse. Our partners have had reports of hungry children living off wild fruit but many suffering diarrhoea as a result.
Scavenging wild fruit and roots has become one of the few options left because farming land has failed to deliver, with this year’s harvest being a disaster.
That failure isn’t surprising when you consider the lack of seeds and fertiliser hampering the efforts of farmers and the absence of government support for agriculture.
Providing seeds
That’s why Tearfund is looking to work with church and Christian partners in Zimbabwe to provide thousands of people with food for the next harvest season.
Seeds for maize, sorghum and ground nuts are virtually non-existent in Zimbabwe, so Tearfund is to supply them to 400 families.
Fertiliser will also be provided, something that otherwise would be outside the affordability of Zimbabweans, evidenced by a metric tonne now costing US$890 compared with $250 a year ago.
But it’s clear need will outstrip what we can supply.
Tearfund’s Karyn Beattie said, `Zimbabweans are showing remarkable resilience but conditions are worsening. The pastors in Bulawayo have told us that they have seen a sharp increase in the number of deaths in the last few weeks. They attribute them to hunger.
`There are already dire predictions for next year’s harvest and that’s why, with the support of the global church, we’re trying to help people feed themselves.’