Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country in southern Africa and has a population of 12.9 million. Its neighbours include Mozambique to the east, Botswana to the west, South Africa to the south and Zambia to the north.
Over 70% of people living in Zimbabwe are directly dependent on agriculture for their livelihood, but less than half of the country is arable land. The government's land redistribution reform has caused chaos in the commercial farming sector and has been blamed for sharp falls in food production and wide-scale unemployment.
In 2005 a campaign to "clean up cities and fight the black market across Zimbabwe" resulted in controversial evictions and demolitions leaving half a million Zimbabweans homeless and facing serious economic hardship. The situation has been exacerbated by long-running drought, and the international community has provided food for millions of people over the last two years.
A major challenge for Zimbabwe is how to tackle one of the world's highest rates of HIV/AIDS infection in a time of economic crisis; a quarter of the adult population is infected with HIV. A fifth of all Zimbabwean children have lost a parent, most have been orphaned by AIDS.
At a time when social services are greatly needed, rampant inflation has meant that the government has not spent money on education and health and many professional teachers and medical staff are leaving the country.
Some of the reasons why Plan works in Zimbabwe
- 1 in 8 children dies before they are five years old
- More than a quarter of children suffer stunted growth due to poor nutrition
- Half the population do not have access to adequate sanitation facilities
- Life expectancy is just 34 years
- Half of children do not go to secondary school
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