Once one of the most prosperous nations in Africa, Zimbabwe is now among its most desperate.
Zimbabwe is a beautiful country with generous people who welcome strangers into their homes and are quick to share what they have, however little that may be. But Zimbabwe continues to battle extreme challenges:
- a devastating AIDS epidemic leaving a generation of orphaned children
- the constant threat of disease from lack of clean water, basic hygiene, and nutritious food
- near-total collapse of the health care system
- a broken economy with unemployment over 80%
- successive droughts
- widespread food shortages and malnutrition
The United Nations has ranked Zimbabwe among the lowest of 187 nations for quality of life.
The Zaka region
Zaka is a hilly rural region of about 200,000 people in southern Zimbabwe. Most people are subsistence farmers, but the area is dry and crop yields are very often poor. There is little economic activity, and it is difficult to see how many people even survive.
Yet things are changing in 12 rural villages in Zaka. Through the hard work and resilience of people, lives and communities are being transformed.