Into the field…

We have nine reports to do for donors by the end of April, so I am sent to Nyaminyami, one of our two main programme areas in the Zambezi Valley, to collect information. It is only a three-day trip (one day to get there; one day spent there; one day to get back) but the Easter shut-down is nearly upon us and we need to catch people while we can.

As we do the six-hour drive to the Save the Children Nyaminyami office in Siyakobvu, I see children everywhere: going to and from school; carrying bags of food on their heads; ushering along goats, donkeys, cattle; just standing alone by the road-side, sometimes waving and smiling as we go by.

Zimbabwe has a very young population: over 47% are under 18 and the life expectancy for men and women is in the mid 30’s. Zimbabwe also has the highest number of children (relative to adult population) orphaned due to AIDS in the world. Many of the children we see will have lost members of their families, if not both parents, to the disease. One of Save the Children’s programmes in Zimbabwe specifically supports these orphans and vulnerable children.