Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - December 6, 2005
Tapiwa Gomo, Bindura
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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