By Nyasha Mutena.
Harare, Zimbabwe (News of The South) – Government is seized by efforts to provide the ever increasing number of people in urgent of food aid which has grown by 11 percent from the same period last year, Minister of Social Welfare, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Dr Sekai Nzenza has said.
She said the country experienced poor harvests due to the drought of last year and Cyclone Idai and this has effected in food insecurity with the situation encroaching to the urban mass as they have also not been spared from hunger.
“Our projection of the number of people who will need food aid has gone up by 11 percent from last year and this number has gone up to 2,4 million,” said Dr Nzenza.
Dr Nzenza said Government is providing food aid to over 700 000 people, adding that they are working with donors to provide food assistance but however transport is still a challenge to ferry food assistance across the country.
“The Government through my ministry has mandated us to provide food aid to needy communities.
“About 2.4 million people are likely to suffer from hunger, we have managed to source food assistance but our biggest challenge at the moment is transport to relay food aid across the country.
“Currently, we are providing 756 980 households with food aid, but we estimate that there are about 900 000 households in need of food aid.” Said Dr Nzenza.
She said the ministry has also started distributing aid to urban areas, with the programme presently being implemented in Harare and Bulawayo. Plans are underway to spread the programme to other urban centres.
Dr Nzenza commended the effort by Mutasa and Buhera district residents who have since launched the food for work programme whereby they volunteer to assist whenever manpower help is needed.
She attributed urban hunger to poor rains in the last summer cropping season due to El Nino saying it resulted in poor urban families that engage in urban agriculture failing to get meaningful yields.
“I want to appeal to the councillors that if we are in a situation where we can’t deliver aid to the most remote areas, that is where you come in,” she said.
An estimated 5,3 million people in the country are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection during the 2018/2019 lean season (October to April), of which 3,8 million are in rural areas. Binga, Mudzi, Buhera and Kariba are hardest hit, with their situation categorized as an emergency.
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