Hunger stalks Chivi district

Chivi (New Ziana) – Chivi district in Masvingo has the largest number of food insecure people, with nearly 90 percent of households in need of food assistance, reports indicate.

According to the Zimbabwe Vulnerable Assessment Community (ZimVAC) report, the number of food insecure households rose from 80.4 percent to 87 percent this year affecting all the district’s 33 wards.

Chivi district development coordinator, Vafious Hlavati said the government and other development partners such as the World Food Programme had come to the rescue of people in the district by supplying food aid to 105 021 households between April and August this year.

The World Food Program also assisted 41 950 people in 17 wards, giving out US$9 vouchers per individual with the assistance set to continue until April 2020.

Save the Children in partnership with Care and World Vision were also set to start giving out food handouts and sponsoring some self-help projects in the district’s 32 wards from this month to April 2020.

The Lutheran Development Assistance has also chipped in to assist three wards out of 32, by giving out US$50 vouchers per house hold to about 6 000 households .

Meanwhile, the Chivi Rural District Council has this year built a clinic in one ward, and rehabilitated 10 community boreholes in others with funds raised through a development levy charged by the local authority on residents.

Council chairperson, Godfrey Mukungunugwa said the clinic was built in Ward 3 while the boreholes were spread in different areas of the district.

The completion of the clinic has come as great relief to villagers in Ward 3, especially expecting mothers that used to walk long distances to clinics in other wards. The new clinic also has a waiting mothers’ shelter for those that need to stay by the clinic until delivery.

Mukungunugwa said the local authority had also used part of the development levy funds to rehabilitate 10 boreholes in different wards, helping ease the shortage of water for households and livestock.

Masvingo Star