Zimbabwe’s AIDS statistics are nearing unbelievable heights: around one in seven adults are currently living with HIV and approximately 565 adults/children are being infected daily. The country’s political climate has made it difficult to respond to the crisis and we are now in a situation where, “put simply, people are dying of AIDS before they can starve to death.â€
According to UNICEF, this crisis has meant that, Zimbabwe now has a higher number of orphans, in proportion to its population, than any other country in the world .
As expected, there are a number within the Khumalo Constituency fighting the virus. Senator Coltart recently became aware of a group of 44 individuals, adults and children, within the Matshamshlope suburb whose situation is particularly dire. For two hours they talked of their starvation, pitiful incomes, unemployment, high food prices and numerous deaths in their families.
Food shortages have been troubling Zimbabwe for some time and have worsened dramatically in the past year. The lack of productive commercial farming has led to a rising cost in food, since it must often be imported from abroad. Alongside this, rising inflation has pushed the cost of food much higher than ordinary people can afford. Put simply, people cannot get hold of the food they need for the money that they are earning.
The particular problem with HIV sufferers not getting enough food is that the effectiveness of ARVs is dependent on it. This means that HIV is fast developing into AIDS in people with malnutrition, despite their medicines. HIV/AIDS sufferers also need enough nutrition to maintain a basic level of health in order to fend off opportunistic infections such as TB and pneumonia
NGOs like World Vision have responded to this need by providing food aid, particularly to those beginning a course of ARVs. Our group had been part of such a feeding scheme, and for a year received food aid from World Vision. This food aid consisted, in the main, of 20kgs mealie meal with some other additional food supplies such as oil and sugar beans. This was one month’s supply for each person, although, inevitably they shared with their family. The supply of food stopped a few months ago now, and since then, the group has been unable to generate enough income to provide for their families.
This means, in real terms, that the people in this HIV/AIDS support group have stopped eating. They have no food and no means to buy or grow food. One of the women, a housekeeper and a widow, with a number of dependents, weighed 79kgs at the start of 2008 and is now 45kgs. Such dramatic weight loss means that she is unlikely to survive until the end of the year without intervention.
Senator Coltart responded by providing each person with a 10kg bag of mealie meal to ensure that for at least the next month they have the starch that they and their families so desperately need. The hope is to set up a ‘Farming God’s Way’ project similar to that of Nketa so that this group can become self-sufficient rather than reliant.