Oxfam is there

In a country already reeling from widespread food shortages and hyperinflation, hundreds of thousands of people are thought to be at risk from the current cholera epidemic.

In pictures: Zimbabwe cholera and hunger crisis

Oxfam has launched an appeal to provide support to 1 million people in Zimbabwe. We have been responding to the growing crisis since October by rehabilitating water sources, carrying out hygiene promotion and providing soap, disinfectant and clean water.

So far our response has been focusing on three worst hit areas: Beitbridge on the South African border; Budiriro, a suburb of Harare; and Mudzi, an area bordering Mozambique. We also plan to start moving into areas where cholera has not hit, to proactively prevent the spread of the disease. 

You can help: Donate to Oxfam's emergency response

Food security

With hyperinflation, poor harvests and food shortages all taking their toll, it is estimated that there will be over 5.1 million Zimbabweans in need of food aid by January 2009.

In October 2008 Oxfam began a six-month food aid programme providing support to 165,000 vulnerable people in the districts of Kwekwe, Shurugwi and Chirunmanzu in Midlands province. We now plan to expand this to reach around 250,000 people.

In pictures: Zimbabwe food aid

Zimbabwe is also experiencing serious shortages of seed and fertilisers. We are currently distributing special drought resistant seed and fertiliser to 12,000 households in five districts in the Midlands and Masvingo provinces.

Learn more

• Background to the crisis

A humanitarian crisis

Ordinary Zimbabweans are desperately short of food, health care, clean water and safe sanitation.

Cholera, a water-borne disease, has surged due to the breakdown of city sewerage systems, poor maintenance of water supply systems including hand pumps, severe drinking water shortages, and the lack of basic hygiene items such as soap.

You can help: Donate to Oxfam's work in Zimbabwe

  Millions of people were already facing starvation. With unemployment over 80 per cent, and food unavailable across the country, they now have to content with cholera and other diseases as the water and sanitation systems break down. With the rainy season upon us, the epidemic will spread even more rapidly.

Peter Mutoredzanwa, Country Director for Oxfam in Zimbabwe

A state on the brink of collapse

Hyper-inflation, the impact of HIV and AIDS, and the decline of commercial farm production, have all led to a widespread lack of food and other essential items across Zimbabwe.

• The official inflation rate is more than 100,000 per cent – the highest in the world
• 80 per cent of the population live on less than $1 a day, without access to basic commodities such as food and water

As a result Zimbabwe is facing a humanitarian crisis of massive proportions.

Years of under-investment in public services mean that healthcare provision in the country is now close to total collapse. Hospitals are dangerously short of medicines and there is a serious lack of healthcare workers.

Make a donation to Oxfam's work in Zimbabwe