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Life is a queue for Zim women
08/03/2003 17:53 - (SA)
Zvimba - Long queues for just about everything have become the grim reality of daily life for women in Zimbabwe, where a combination of severe recession, political turmoil and famine has turned basic commodities into luxuries.
Here in the Zvimba communal lands northwest of Harare the village women, some with babies on their laps, sit on the wet ground and wait patiently for aid agencies to distribute food relief.
In the nation's cities and towns their urban counterparts queue to buy basics outside grocery shops and supermarkets.
Severe economic recession, disrupted farming activities due to a controversial government land-reform programme, and famine have left more than half the population at risk of hunger in Zimbabwe.
The result is endless queues that already have claimed several lives, says Jana Ncube, chairwoman of the Women's Coalition in Zimbabwe.
"A women died in a fuel queue, another died in a bread queue and a woman gave birth in a food-relief queue," she says.
In one food line in Harare recently, a baby strapped on her mother's back was hit by baton-wielding police who were trying to control the crowd, according to media reports.
Many are more than 60 years old
Ncube says food shortages have become a tense political issue in Zimbabwe. If people are heard talking about shortages, they are deemed to be making political statements, she says.
Of the 5 000 villagers gathered at Nyamangara school in Zvimba, 95% are woman. They are here to receive food aid from the World Food Programme and its implementing partner, Christian Care.
The recipients brave the heavy rain showers to receive their monthly rations.
Many of them are in their sixties and seventies, but are looking after Aids orphans or their own children who are on their death beds due to Aids-related illnesses.
Laina Ndoro, who says she cannot remember her age, tells how she has fended for her three grandchildren whose parents have died of Aids.
She says at times they ate nothing but wild fruit until December last year, when relief agencies started distributing food in the district.
But while food is one of the main issues Zimbabwean women are likely to put under the spotlight on International Women's Day, shortages of sanitary products are equally critical.
The products have been in short supply since late last year. When they are available, the cheapest brand costs more than the average salary for a local domestic worker.
"Issues of menstruation were never discussed even at family level in this country, but the situation has become so desperate it's even being discussed at parliament," said Ncube.
"That shows it has become critical." - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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