Anyone who's been following the news these days is aware of the political turmoil in Zimbabwe. In the weeks leading up to today's highly contested runoff vote, many Zimbabweans who support the opposition party have been beaten or even killed. Tens of thousands have fled the country.
Even worse, in early June the government banned all aid work on the ground in Zimbabwe—threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of children who need help from organizations like UNICEF to survive. Because the situation is so volatile and is changing so quickly, we wanted to give you some additional insight into what families and children in Zimbabwe are facing, and how UNICEF is trying to help them.
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| © UNICEF/ HQ06-0405/Giacomo Pirozzi |
| Belinda Makutya, 11, and her classmates read together at a UNICEF-supported primary school. Belinda’s mother is HIV-positive and her father died of AIDS. |
Zimbabwe, which was once a fairly prosperous agricultural nation, has endured some brutal political struggles on its road to independence. Following eight years of civil war, things again started taking a turn for the worse 10 years ago when the Mugabe government forcibly redistributed privately owned farmland. Since then, Zimbabwe has been gripped by staggering inflation (165,000 percent), a food crisis, an ever-growing AIDS crisis (25 percent of Zimbabweans are HIV-positive) and now, escalating violence. As is so often the case when a country is in turmoil, innocent children are the ones who are suffering the most.
Tens of thousands of children are now refugees in their own country or in neighboring countries. Because so many teachers have fled the country, a massive number of schools are closed. Young children have seen their parents beaten, or are often beaten themselves. Some children have been tortured in what used to be their schools. And now, when children need help the most, they are no longer able to receive the help they so desperately need to survive.
Last year, UNICEF assisted over 2.5 million children and women in Zimbabwe, supplying them with clean water, vaccines, bed nets, proper nutrition, health care, education and HIV/AIDS support. Since Zimbabwe's recent clampdown on aid distribution, 500,000 children aren't getting the help they need to survive. One UNICEF program, which reaches 185,000 orphans, has had to shut down.
UNICEF finds this current ban on aid for children unacceptable. In a statement released on June 13, UNICEF is calling on all nations who are signatories to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to enter into their moral and legal obligation and protect Zimbabwe's children. UNICEF is also calling on Zimbabwe's government to immediately lift the ban affecting children, so that UNICEF and other NGOs can help the children of Zimbabwe survive in these difficult times. Hundreds of thousands of children are at risk.
If you would like to support UNICEF's programs that help children in places like Zimbabwe, you can donate here. The world's children thank you.