The Independent on Sunday Christmas appeal for the children of Zimbabwe

You can give Zimbabwe's children hope

Sunday 30 November 2008

Save the Children and the Independent on Sunday have launched a major Christmas appeal to save the lives of children in Zimbabwe.

The situation for children in Zimbabwe is worsening day by day. You can help by making a donation to The Independent on Sunday appeal.

Millions don't have enough to eat, and are dependent on food aid for their daily survival. A cholera epidemic is raging out of control, and health professionals expect an equally deadly outbreak of malaria to follow soon. Nearly all schools are now closed because even the teachers are struggling to feed themselves, which means most children are no longer getting an education. All this leaves them with little hope for the future.

Mercy, who thinks she is seven — she has no birth certificate — hasn't had a proper meal for over a month. Sometimes all she has to eat is a stew of mulberry leaves, which her and her four siblings strip from trees surrounding their dilapidated mud and thatch house. "I feel sad and weak all the time," said Mercy.

Mercy used to go to school, a walk of several hours. "I liked the Ndebele language lessons, but I was finding it difficult to learn, because I was so hungry," she said. Her education would have come to a halt anyway — her school has been closed since August.

Mercy and her brothers and sisters live with their great-grandmother, Mrs Nkomo. All the children are unnaturally quiet. Mercy's three-year-old sister Patricia has the greying hair that is a clear sign of severe malnutrition. "I am just waiting for God to do whatever he can, because I have lost all hope," Mrs Nkomo said.

Together with Save the Children, you can help give hope back to Mercy and thousands of other children like her.

Save the Children's 150-strong team in Zimbabwe is feeding over 170,000 people and providing seed so families have crops to plant for the next year. We are helping to stop the cholera outbreak by setting up safe treatment camps and distributing drugs and equipment to treat cholera victims. We are helping to feed pre-school pupils and their teachers so they can still go to school, and are supporting children caring for sick relatives.

However as rates of malnutrition and disease continue to rise, there is much more that needs to be done. Save the Children wants to set up emergency feeding centres to save the lives of severely malnourished children who need special therapeutic food. More food and more medicine is needed to help the increasing number of children whose lives are in danger.

Here's how the money you give can help:

  • £8 will feed a family of five for a week
  • £30 will clothe a family of three children
  • £40 will buy a kit to treat a cholera victim, including drip, fluid and drugs
  • £60 will buy Plumpynut to help save the lives of five acutely malnourished children
  • £100 will help to run an emergency feeding centre for a week
  •  £250 will fund a bore hole and water pump so a village has clean water

Donate now to The Independent on Sunday appeal.

 

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