As a Trust we have always had to devote some of our resources to famine relief, The need varies from year to year but due to the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy, many are scraping by on whatever they can grow and ‘hustling’ as they call it which is a general term for buying and selling basic commodities just to earn enough to buy food one day at a time. This fragile existence is in danger of collapsing altogether when the rainy season fails to water their staple maize crop enough to give a harvest. This means every bag of maize then needs to be bought at a time when there is a shortage which pushes prices beyond reach.
In the goodness of God supporting churches have funded boreholes over the years which has helped to irrigate vegetable plots and provide clean drinking water, unfortunately in a drought year the problem is on such a vast scale countrywide that these boreholes are not sufficient to solve the problem.
We have an ongoing commitment to fund the provision of fortified maize porridge called ‘e pap’ to small children in a camp of displaced people at Killarney, near Bulawayo.
When there is a shortage of food and small children are reduced to perhaps one meal a day of maize on its own with no vegetables or meat, they are at particular risk of becoming developmentally stunted and enter adulthood unable to support themselves. This is addressed by a program of nutritionally enhanced maize porridge which is relatively expensive but we believe a necessary investment.
This year (2024) is sadly turning out to be one of the worst we have known in recent years for countrywide lack of rainfall and total collapse of this year’s harvest. We are starting to get desperate pleas for help from our partners on the ground, particularly in rural areas who now have no one to turn to but Christian brothers and sisters in the UK and around the world. We have dedicated a famine appeal fund to begin channelling resources to trusted Christian Zimbabwean partners who are best equipped to get aid to where it is urgently needed most.
