Zimbabwe: meeting starvation with food and oppression with courage

Brendan Smith  |  World
Date posted:  1 Aug 2016
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Zimbabwe: meeting starvation with food and oppression with courage

photo: iStock

Two and a half million people in Zimbabwe are in danger of starvation and in dire need of food.

Very little is being done or even reported about it. A UK Christian charity, Barnabas Fund, working with the local church, appears to be the one of the few NGOs providing direct food aid in Zimbabwe.

Once one of the largest food producers of Africa, Zimbabwe is now rated as the second poorest country in the world by Global Finance Magazine. It has been crippled by reckless land reforms, state-orchestrated violence, governmental corruption, 95% unemployment, and a cash availability crisis. With the added influence of the weather system El Niño, bringing the worst drought in living memory, famine is looming and the country appears set for collapse. Livestock are dying and many farmers experienced 95% crop failure in the April harvest. This is catastrophic, given that 80% of the population live directly on food they grow.

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