29 December 2008
Johannesburg — "There is no food, we have malnutrition, there is cholera, now we are expecting a malaria outbreak," said an exasperated Amanda Weisbaum, the emergency manager for Save the Children, UK, in Zimbabwe.
As the cholera death toll climbed to 1,564, and its caseload to near the 30,000 mark, Save the Children has found that acute malnutrition in children aged six months to five years has doubled since 2007 in one of the two districts in which it has been working in Zimbabwe.
With the onset of rain, there are mounting concerns of a possible malaria outbreak ravaging immune systems weakened by cholera and malnutrition, "especially among those aged under five", said Weisbaum.
But reaching out to those who need help in a country where most of the infrastructure has collapsed, and the inflation rate is unofficially in the trillions of percent, is a huge challenge and "extremely frustrating", she said.
"In terms of access, Zimbabwe, comparatively, is one of the worst areas I have worked in," said Weisbaum, who has worked in some of the world's crisis hotspots - Darfur, Chad and Niger. "At least in Darfur, when we ran out of stock we could fly in supplies to the areas we worked in - here we cannot," she said.
Challenges
Weisbaum listed the challenges an aid agency such as Save the Children, which works in two districts in the Zambezi valley in northeastern Zimbabwe, faces:
1. Communications: "Our day begins with us [the head office in the capital, Harare] trying to get in touch with our offices in the two districts Binga and Nyaminyami. It can at times take us an entire day - the phone lines don't work. Radio communication is also relatively poor," said Weisbaum.
2. Foreign exchange: When the office in Harare does get through to district offices, raising foreign exchange to buy and deliver the supplies is a "huge" problem.
Since last month, aid agencies have been allowed to pay their national staff in foreign exchange. The economy unofficially runs on the US dollar. "But we don't know who decides the exchange rate - the banks don't function very well and accessing US dollars can be quite problematic," explained Weisbaum. Petrol costs about 75 US cents per litre, and diesel about $1.20 a litre. "It [the costs] is huge for us, especially when you calculate the distances in trying to reach out to rural communities."
The aid agency can also spend an entire day trying to find foreign exchange to buy fuel and pay the driver.
3. Food shortages: Feeding staff and beneficiaries in the Cholera Treatment Centres (CTC) set up across the country in response to the cholera outbreak remains a huge challenge. "We provide food packs to our staff going to the field because often they cannot access food."
The charity even had to raid its own stocks to send food for 22 new cholera admissions and care givers in a CTC over the past few days in Nyaminyami District. "It is the World Food Programme's job to provide food for those admitted in the centre, but they don't have food either," explained Weisbaum. WFP is already rationing food aid in Zimbabwe.
4. Writing reports to raise money, which might not come: "And I think we seem to spend many days just writing reports, attending meetings, trying to compile data to raise money from donors, when we should actually be out there trying to help beneficiaries," said a frustrated Weisbaum.
The level of donor confidence in Zimbabwe is very low partly because of the uncertain political situation, so funds do not always follow reports and appeals. But the response to the cholera outbreak has been good, according to Weisbaum, so the aid agency hopes to raise money for its operations for the next few months on the back of the cholera outbreak.
All Zimbabwe needs is a bit of money, training "as doctors and teachers have all fled the country", and some political initiative, and the country would be back on its feet soon, added an optimistic Weisbaum.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
The insensitivity of Tsvangi is disheartening.The western sponsored stooge remains safe from the ruinous effects of the illegal economic sanctions he invited upon his own supporters.The cholera outbreak is hitting hard Mdc-t's so called urban strongholds .The stooge fled to Botswana and the U.S and Britain have resorted to pressing him to walk out on the african solution and tsvangi obliges. This only serves to show the tragic effects of lack of education on the part of tsvangi.He doesn't realise that his own supporters are bearing the brunt of his reckless, unashamed puppetry, being used by outsiders who have no… [Read Full Text]
I don see the reason why someone goes all the way to blame someone who is not in governance for the failures of the government, this shows the highest degree of political ignorance if the person is educated in any way, the commentator must tell us about what the gov in/will power must do, I have never heard of a gvt with good policies that goes down coz of the action of opposition party Zimbos work up look at Ghana
The man was married to a ghanaian - he must have learnt something!!!!! Now he is with his own!!!!!!!!
Dear concerned, Zim political problems is a direct result of interference into zimbabwe's internal affairs by western countries, using puppets.Look at Ghana, it's not facing hostile interference by outsiders that's why it's politically stable.There's no world leader or organisation saying in advance that the election will not be free and fair if ruling party wins,this effectively leads to an atmosphere of political tolerence, peacefulness and acceptance of election results., this inturn ensures that no political polarisation emerges after the election that would cause a political crisis, these positive circumstances inturn lead to economic prosperity because of unity of purpose by… [Read Full Text]
PLEASE IGNORE ANY POSTS FROM TAKUNYA_NDEBVU AND MABHIZA. THEY ARE BOTH THE SAME PERSON AND PAID BY THE ZANU PF'S MINISTRY OF INFORMATION (PROPOGANDA DEPARTMENT) TO POST AS MUCH PROPOGANDA ON THE WEB AS POSSIBLE TO PROMOTE THE MURDEROUS AND THEIVING ROBERT MUGABE. IF YOU READ ANY OF HIS POSTS YOU'LL SEE THAT HE MAKES THINGS UP AND CONTINUALLY LIES FOR THIS AIM. HE HAS NO CREDIBILITY WHATSOEVER AND SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. HE WILL CONTINUNALLY CLAIM THAT TSVANGIRAI HAS CALLED FOR SANCTIONS AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF ZIMBABWE. THIS CLAIM IS 100% FALSE AND DESIGNED TO ALIENATE TSVANGIRAI FROM… [Read Full Text]
Suspicions confirmed. But I am a bit suprised to learn that some of the ZANUpf can read and write.
Who is the hell is Mugabe any way ? He needs to be pushed out, like Nyerere pushed out Idi Amin. For all we know he was castrated by Ian Smith. He is really eunuch. That may be that is putting Zimbabweans through this pointless ignominy.
See all comments (12).
This is my opinion of Zim Politically- unstable Economically- gone Socially - gone Technological - There is no postal services people are not receiving mail. someone is opening mail in the hope of finding bucks! The phones are down the drain - cannot communicate with anyone