Tag Archives: economic crisis

July 29, 2009 · 10:22 AM

Rural poor’s resilience after decade of devastating decline

The collapse of Zimbabwe's healthcare system meant that sick people had to bring their own medicines with them to hospital. Credit: Caritas/David Snyder

David Snyder in Zimbabwe – Day 3

Read this entry in French

My last night in Zimbabwe, after a few days now with Caritas staff visiting Caritas beneficiaries in southern Zimbabwe. There is a lot to say about Zimbabwe today. After many years now of decline – the collapse, really, of both the economy and the health care sector – I’ve been happy to see some level or normality return to the country. Continue reading →

Mothers abandon children in economic crisis

The face of the impact of the economic crisis in Zimbabwe: parents have abandoned their children leaving them either alone or in the care of grandparents. Credit: Caritas/David Snyder

David Snyder in Zimbabwe - Day 2

Français, Español

If you want to understand the scale of the economic crisis gripping Zimbabwe, travel to the village of Mandabe. While evidence of the hardships facing the people of Zimbabwe is not hard to find across much of the country, the face of crisis is not what you will find in Mandabe, but rather what you will not: the parents of many of Mandabe’s children. They have left Zimbabwe, and their families, for a new life in neighboring Botswana. Continue reading →

Zimbabwe – food still scarce in poor families

Without the promise of a meal, many children from poor families in Zimbabwe wouldn't be able to go to school. Credit: Caritas/David Snyder

David Snyder in Zimbabwe – Day 1

Français , Español

After a drive down from Harare yesterday, we headed out this morning for the village of Lupaka. We spent the day there visiting first the Lupaka Primary School then the Lupaka Clinic, which sit side-by-side and both of which Caritas Internationalis is supporting with food as part of the ongoing Emergency Appeal.

The school has 535 students, each of whom has since April been receiving daily meals of porridge made from corn soy blend – a highly nutritious mix provided to the school each month by CI partner agency the Catholic Development Commission (CADEC). With the economic meltdown that has taken place in Zimbabwe, people everywhere here are hurting. Nowhere is the impact of the crisis more evident than in rural areas like Lupaka, where many of the students we saw today would simply not be able to attend school at all were it not for the meal they receive there.

Continue reading →