The Red Cross announced this month it was starting emergency food distribution expected to reach a total of 260 000 people with monthly food rations, for the next nine months.
The global agency Church World Service (CWS) has also stepped in and announced a U.S. fundraising campaign to bring emergency and longer-term assistance for the dire food crisis in Zimbabwe.
CWS spokesperson Jan Dragin told Newsreel that close to 27 000 most vulnerable people will be provided with food assistance amounting to about 390 000 tonnes of cereals through to 2009. She said long term programs will also be put in place to train farmers to employ more progressive sustainable farming methods.
Dragin said: The farmers and the people of Zimbabwe certainly long not just for immediate food aid but also for the more flourishing prospects of being self sustaining.
CWS Director of Emergency Response Programs Donna Derr said the agency, “is welcoming the shifting policies in Zimbabwe” and will work with its partner, Christian Care, to deliver badly needed general food aid, school feeding, food recovery and psychosocial support, as part of the organization’s multi-solution response to the world-wide food crisis.
The international community has adopted a wait and see approach’ to the situation in Zimbabwe after the signing of the power sharing deal, and these countries say they are holding off on structural aid for Zimbabwe until they see if there is genuine power sharing. Many international aid groups were banned from distributing food by the Mugabe regime during the election period, a ban that was partially lifted recently. Because the economic crisis is so severe some aid agencies are stepping in to help the most vulnerable groups, including the elderly, orphans and people living with HIV AIDS with food assistance.
Post published in: News