Updated May 2026
Save the Children has worked in Zimbabwe since 1983. Children here face a difficult combination of poverty, recurring climate shocks and a health crisis that is intensifying - made worse by cuts to international aid.
What children in Zimbabwe are facing
Zimbabwe is a country under pressure. Droughts, floods and economic hardship push millions of families to the edge - and children pay the highest price. The country also faces a deepening malaria emergency caused by the withdrawal of international aid funding.
Until recently, Zimbabwe was a global success story in malaria control. Between 2023 and 2024, Zimbabwe achieved a 76.6% reduction in malaria cases - equivalent to 487,000 fewer infections, with more than a fifth of the population living in malaria-free areas by 2023. That progress is now being reversed.
Aid cuts led to the premature closure of Zimbabwe's largest malaria programme. As of mid-April 2026, Zimbabwe had recorded over 65,000 malaria cases and 174 deaths - nearly double the figures from the same period in 2025. Shortages of insecticide-treated mosquito nets, delays in vector control and weakened disease surveillance systems are all contributing to the surge. Malaria remains the single largest killer of children over one month old globally, according to the World Health Organization.
Children also face barriers to education. Many walk long distances to school - up to ten kilometres each way - and floods regularly cut off access entirely. Poverty means school fees, uniforms and materials are out of reach for many families. Child labour and child trafficking remain serious risks for children pushed out of school.
Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children International, visited Zimbabwe in April 2026, where she met child parliamentarians and children at school, to discuss the impact of the climate crisis.
What we're doing
We focus on four interconnected areas: food security and child protection, education, health, and climate resilience.
Education
We work with the government and local partners to increase access to quality learning, with a particular focus on children with disabilities, girls, and children in remote areas. We support schools to become safer, more inclusive spaces - and work with communities to change attitudes towards keeping children, especially girls, in school. In 2024, our EU-funded Fighting Child Labour and Child Trafficking project helped around 1,500 children return to school in Chiredzi district, working with local partners to shift attitudes and cover school costs.
Child protection
We work to tackle the root causes of child labour and trafficking, running mobile legal aid clinics, awareness campaigns and "Stop Child Labour" toolkits. These campaigns help to shift community attitudes, creating an opportunity for children like Rudo* to return to school.
Health
We work to ensure no mother dies giving birth, no child dies of a preventable cause before their fifth birthday, and every child gets adequate nutrition. We are scaling up emergency health and malaria response following the collapse of the country's largest malaria programme, calling for sustained, predictable funding to protect the gains communities have worked hard to achieve.
Climate resilience and school feeding
In climate-vulnerable districts like Mangwe, we run school feeding programmes that keep children attending even when food is scarce at home. We also educate children about their rights and about climate risks - helping them become advocates in their own communities. Children tell us that the school meal is often the reason they show up each day.
A story of change
Rudo*, 12 from Zimbabwe is in class, learning her favorite subject, English.
Every morning in the southeastern part of Zimbabwe, bordering Mozambique and known for its sugarcane
production, 12-year-old Rudo* wakes up excited to put on her school uniform and head to school. For her,
school is not just lessons - it is a place of hope, friendship, and the promise of a brighter future. This joy of learning was once out of Rudo’s reach. She missed two years of school because her family could not afford her education costs. Instead of being in class, she would accompany her grandmother to nearby farms, taking on small piece jobs just to earn little money for food.
Through a Save the Children-supported community awareness campaign and a school-based project that helped cover fees, uniforms and books, Rudo returned to class. She is now in Grade 4, with her sights set on becoming a nurse. "I want to do well in school so I can change my life and help my family," she says.
Around 1,500 children were brought back to school through similar campaigns in the district in 2024 alone.
Names marked with * have been changed to protect identities.
