Masvingo — As hunger continues to stalk Masvingo province, villagers in Zimuto communal lands are scavenging for food leftovers at Zimuto Mission High School.

Teachers at the school fear the villagers could be exposing themselves to diseases since they battle with hungry dogs, which also forage for food from the school's dumpsite and bins.

When The Standard visited the school just after lunch on Wednesday, scores of hungry villagers were milling around the dumpsite, waiting for cooks to dump the food leftovers.

One of the villagers, Tangai Mazambara, said he was scrounging for food at the school while awaiting his crops to mature.

"Our families are starving," he said, "We can't watch them dying. It is better for them to eat this food. We have nowhere to buy grain or maize meal. If you go to the city you spend three days in a queue to buy maize meal and the family will be starving," Mazambara said.

Asked whether he was not afraid of contracting diseases, Mazambara said it was better to die of diseases than succumbing to hunger.

"We are aware of the possibilities of contracting diseases but we have no option. It's better to die of a disease than to die of hunger," he said, adding "we can't be infected because we boil the sadza before eating it."

A Zimuto Mission teacher, who requested not to be named, described the situation as "pathetic" adding the villagers risked contracting diseases.

"The situation here is bad. Villagers invade the school bins on a daily basis collecting leftovers and taking them home.

"I think something must be done because if this continues many people will die of diseases like cholera," warned the teacher.

According to the teacher, the school authorities, have instructed the school's cooks to store the leftovers in a clean place to avoid deliberately exposing the villagers to the risk of a disease outbreak.