A
monthly food basket and a bag of seeds are making the difference
for Neneyi Bzhami, a 40-year-old mother of four who has struggled
against the odds for the past few years in Zimbabwe.
Three years ago Neneyi lost her husband to AIDS. The following
year, she tested HIV-positive and was bedridden for a month,
unable to earn money to support herself or her four dependent
children, now aged three to 19.
In June this year the family lost their home in an informal
settlement in Bindura, a city 80 kilometres north of Harare,
in the Zimbabwe government’s “Operation Murambatsvina”
or “Operation Clean-Up.”
In Operation Clean-Up, the government removed illegal structures
from urban centers. The United Nations estimates that more than
700,000 people were left homeless or without a livelihood after
the operation started in May.
A Red Cross assessment found that Operation Clean-Up severely
disrupted the lives and livelihoods of the very poor, the chronically
sick and child-headed households. Homes were demolished in the
middle of winter. Most people had no alternative shelter. The
operation made nearly half of the people in the Zimbabwe Red
Cross’s home-based care programme untraceable.
Neneyi and her children found themselves living rough after
their cabin was demolished in the clean-up.
“In June, my children and I had no choice but to stay
in the open. It was winter and my health deteriorated. I was
praying that one day I would get accommodation for my family.
I really needed to look for a better place for my children who
by then had stopped going to school.”
SOS Children’s Home, a charity, came to Neneyi’s
rescue when they found a one-room house in Chipadze, another
part of Bindura city, where she now lives with her children.
The Zimbabwe Red Cross has also paid for houses to be built
for priority homeless groups, starting with child-headed households.
“We have already started supporting the building of houses
for orphans and other child-headed families. We hope we will
have completed 20 two-bedroomed houses by December,” says
Abel Augustinio, relief coordinator for the Zimbabwe Red Cross.
Throughout this trying time, Neneyi has maintained contact with
her Red Cross home-based care facilitator. Apart from giving
counseling, the Red Cross home-based care facilitator also delivers
a monthly food basket to people like Neneyi.
“The Red Cross gives us mealie meal, cooking oil, blankets,
soap and other items. This helps us a lot. Without that support
I do not know what would have become of the children. I love
them so much and I do not want them to become destitute.”
Recently the Zimbabwe Red Cross surprised Neneyi and many others
affected by Operation Clean-Up when they gave them maize seed
and fertilizers to prepare for the coming farming season. Each
family received ten kilograms of maize seed and fertilizer,
enough to cover an acre. In a good season, a family can harvest
enough crops from an acre to feed themselves all year.
For Neneyi, the seeds and fertilizer have enabled her to make
a fresh start.
“I have already sown some of the seeds, hoping it is going
to rain this month. I am used to working for myself so I am
happy that I got the most important farming inputs. I feel relieved
that I can start my life again from the beginning,” says
Neneyi.
“Farming is the only way I can get food and earn money
for school fees and other household needs. If my health does
not deteriorate, I hope I will be able to work the land.”
Neneyi and her children are among 12 million people in Southern
Africa threatened by a severe food crisis. The region, which
has the world’s highest prevalence of HIV and AIDS, is
also coping with crop failure as a result of drought, and governments
largely unable to meet the food needs of their populations.
In October, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies launched a food security appeal which seeks
to meet the immediate food needs of 1.5 million people until
the harvest of 2006, to restore livelihoods, and ensure access
to safe water. The food security operation will target people
living with HIV and AIDS, households with orphans, female-headed
households, people with disabilities and households headed by
older people, which the Red Cross assessment has found to be
the most in danger of hunger.
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| Neneyi
holding her last child (p13624)
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Neneyi
recieving maize seed from a Zimbabwe Red Cross care facilitator
in Bindura. (p13625)
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A
small backyard garden where she gets relish for her and
the children.(p13623)
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