Zim a challenge for aid workers
2009-01-09 22:17
Johannesburg - Aid agencies fighting cholera in Zimbabwe say they are working well with a government that once viewed them with suspicion, but they still face challenges because of the country's economic collapse.
Aid workers in interviews this week described having to bring in everything from soap to medical equipment.
Even the cash to pay Zimbabwean staff comes from abroad. A bar of soap, essential for the cleanliness needed to stop cholera, was selling for $1 in Zimbabwe on Friday, about half a gardener's monthly salary.
Cholera, which should be easy to control, has killed more than 1 800 people since August in Zimbabwe, where the medical system and the infrastructure to ensure clean water are in tatters.
Medical workers whose government salaries have been reduced to nearly nothing by hyperinflation now receive hard currency "incentive" payments from international aid agencies.
CARE is providing meals for patients and staff at cholera centers, said spokesman Kenneth Walker. CARE was already feeding thousands of Zimbabweans because of a hunger crisis that had preceded the outbreak of cholera.
Blitz against cholera
"We're operating at what passes for normal in Zimbabwe," Walker said.
Last year, the government restricted the work of international aid agencies for two months, accusing them of siding with the opposition before a presidential run-off.
Now, Oxfam spokesperson Caroline Gluck said on Friday, the government does not interfere in her agency's cholera work -and aid organisations even find themselves praised by state media.
President Robert Mugabe was ridiculed last month for declaring Zimbabwe had "no cholera", raising concerns his government was not taking the epidemic seriously.
But last week, Gluck said, his government called a meeting attended by government officials, health experts, diplomats and journalists to announce a nationwide blitz against cholera.
That was "a frank acknowledgment of the scale of the problem", Gluck said in a telephone interview from Zimbabwe.
Relations have eased on the financial front as well as the political. In November, Zimbabwe's central bank returned $7.3m that it had confiscated from the local bank account of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria after the international aid agency complained publicly.
Now, banking problems have eased. Aid groups are finding it easier to access their funds, and they are now allowed to use US dollars for transactions in Zimbabwe.
Aid groups can make bank-to-bank transfers to pay the Zimbabweans from whom they buy goods and services, but those Zimbabweans remain subject to limits on daily transactions, or have to stand in lines for hours at banks to withdraw the money.
Paying in cash is one solution, but the logistics of bringing in enough hard currency in small denominations are very difficult.
Logistical challenges
"This is a nightmare for our administrative people," said Maria Therese de Magalhaes, emergency coordinator in Zimbabwe for Medecins Sans Frontieres.
De Magalhaes said the logistical challenges were likely to mount, with signs cholera was spreading to remote rural areas. MSF will have to find a way to get in water, mobile clinics and workers, and food and other necessities.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies flew in seven plane loads of equipment after the epidemic hit and mobilised 30 000 volunteers across the country to fight cholera.
"We came with massive capacity," said Farid Abdulkadir, the national disaster management co-ordinator for southern Africa, adding he expected his group's cholera response campaign to last another six months.
- AP