Taking stock: people helping people

The day, set aside by the UN General Assembly in 2008 as a way to recognise those who face acute hazards in their attempts to help others, coincides with the 2003 bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad that resulted in the death of 22 members of staff.

This year’s theme “People helping people” draws our attention to the need to step out of our comfort zones to help those in dire need. It is particularly apt for Zimbabwe, whose humanitarian condition is still fragile.

Since 2000, the country has faced an unprecedented political-economic-social crisis marked by human rights abuses and political persecution, property rights violations through the seizure of farms and assets from individuals, and an acute economic meltdown.

These trends had a direct impact on the country’s humanitarian situation. Social services, among them health and education delivery systems, nearly collapsed. Jobs were lost and household income severely dwindled, making Zimbabwe one of the poorest countries in the world – despite being rich in natural, physical and human resources. The height of the crisis was in 2008 when a cholera outbreak swept through the country, killing more than 4,000 people and leaving around 100,000 seeking treatment.

The disease spread so easily because the country, reeling under international isolation, was too broke to contain it. It was broke because the government was pursuing the wrong policies, with politicians going to extreme lengths to enrich themselves. Because it was broke, it lacked the capacity to provide essential social services in order to save lives.

The formation of a coalition government in 2009 gave much hope to Zimbabweans who had remained in the country, as well as the millions who sought economic and political refuge outside.

Despite evidence of recovery, our situation remains precarious, and a lot needs to be done to rescue the country from a complex humanitarian situation. Social services delivery remains in the doldrums, as witnessed, for example, through the creeping resurgence of waterborne diseases like typhoid in Harare, Chitungwiza and other parts of the country, the failure by thousands of children to access basic education, and the inability to provide meaningful safety nets in the wake of food insecurity offset by recurrent droughts, poor farming preparations and the corrupt and badly managed land “reform” programme.

The hungry are forced to adopt desperate measures to survive, while their vulnerability is worsened by politically motivated exclusion from food aid programmes. Hundreds of thousands are living in sub-human conditions, seven years after Operation Murambatsvina robbed them of their homes and livelihoods. Millions, particularly in rural areas, live on less than a dollar a day. The political situation in the country is still tense and the future uncertain.