Oxfam has been working with our partner Lead Trust in Bulawayo since 2006 to provide food, hygiene kits and training and clean water and sanitation. The programme operates in 3 areas, Makokoba, Mzilikazi and Njube. But it cannot help all the people who need it. 8,600 households have tried to register for the programme.

Bulawayo’s water and sanitation system is collapsing. As well as food distribution, the programme distributes hygiene kits, including soap and cotton wool, to 6,250 households and provided training in cholera prevention to community health volunteers. The programme has also built and repaired water tanks and boreholes close to schools.

Tambuzayi Murenjekwa, 46, a volunteer community care-giver, receives food assistance.

There are six people in her household including her father, 72, and three children, the youngest her five year-old daughter.

Each month her family receives 20kg of maize, 750ml of cooking oil, 2kg of sugar beet, 700g of salt, 325ml of peanut butter and 10kg of porridge.

She said: “The food has made a very big difference. Before we couldn’t buy much food because of the high prices. We had to miss many meals. Now we can eat three small meals a day.

Most of the people in my area are hungry. More than 300 people got help in my area out of 3,000.

You feel angry when you are hungry or your children are hungry. People who are not benefiting are not happy and people are always quarrelling.

Many people are sick, a lot of people are suffering from TB and HIV and now we have cholera. People are more likely to get sick because they are not getting enough food. Many people are eating once every other day.

As a care-giver in our area there are more than 30 patients who are receiving home based care because of hunger.

There are many children who are sick because of lack of food, especially those who parents passed away. Cholera has affected our community very much. People are not coping they are dying.

If you are hungry you are more at risk of cholera, you buy cheap things or you are forced to collect things to eat from the rubbish and that puts you at risk. People have been picking up cabbage leaves off the ground at the market.

I became a care-giver because I just wanted to help other people. I work three hours a week up to six hours a day. Everyone is at risk from cholera. We have many, many sewerage pipes that have burst in our area. We have many patients with cholera.”

The main road in her community is scarred with potholes caused by a river of sewerage, the result of a burst pipe.

“I feel I make a difference. This summer I trained to teach people in the area about cholera. I think we have saved lives.”

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