Photos Stories from Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country. It is located in the southern part of Africa and is bordered by South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique. Formerly Southern Rhodesia under colonial rule, the Republic of Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, when Robert Mugabe was elected as the new leader of the country and has remained in power ever since. Some of President Mugabe's controversial policies, such as the land reform policies, have resulted in a mass emigration from Zimbabwe, crippled the economy, seen shortages of some of the most basic food necessities and experienced some of the worst human rights violations.

HIV and AIDS - background

Overall, the global percentage of people living with HIV has stabilised since 2007. Many of the countries that are most heavily affected by the epidemic are showing significant gains in preventing new HIV infections, which can be attributed to increased condom use among young people with multiple partners, and the signs are that young people are waiting longer before being sexually active. However, AIDS related diseases continue to be the leading cause of death in Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa is still the most deeply affected, accounting for 67% of all people living with HIV, with 72% of all AIDS deaths in 2007 from sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2007 some 1.3 million people in Zimbabwe, that is 30% of its population, was living with HIV. According to the United Nations World Health Organisation, the life expectancy at birth in Zimbabwe in 2006 was 43years. Some 690,000 of the 1.3 million people were in need of Anti-retroviral Therapy (ART) with only 103,000 receiving the medication. Zimbabwe was one of the first countries in southern African to show a real decline in their HIV prevalence rate. With a prevalence rate of 15.3% amongst the 15-24 age groups, its prevalence is still extremely high. It has the third highest prevalence rate after South Africa and Swaziland respectively. The decline in Zimbabwe has been attributed to behavioural change due to well-developed education programmes and an educated population (UNESCO reported in 2006 that the Adult Literacy Rate for Zimbabwe is 90%). The large numbers of people emigrating from Zimbabwe and increasing mortality were also attributed to the impact.

Despite the decline in prevalence, Zimbabwe continues to reel under one of the worst impacts of the epidemic. The gains shown in the 2007 statistics may have been lost due to the impacts of the political and economic hardship which prevailed in 2008 and the cholera outbreak (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7764200.stm) which hit the country in 2008 severely impacting an already compromised immune system of people living HIV and AIDS.

(Note: Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic affected all ten provinces. As at end March 2009, the total cumulative cases were 94,013 whilst the cumulative deaths were 4,11.)

Zimbabwe's health sector comprises of almost 2,000 facilities that are distributed across primary care facilities to district, provincial and referral hospitals. According to the UNAIDS July 2008 Report, just 89 sites were reported to have been providing ART in 2007. Most of the sites survived the hardships of 2008 due to essential funding from overseas. However, the health system in Zimbabwe, which was once emulated by neighbouring countries that referred patients for special care, has been in decline since 2006 and has dramatically deteriorated from August 2008 culminating into the total collapse of the public health system and the closure of most state-run health facilities in December. Church-run mission hospitals, like Karanda and Howard in Mashonaland Central Province, and Nyadiri and All Souls in Mashonaland East Province, which are financed by external funding continued to operate relatively smoothly because they have not been affected by shortages of drugs, and the staff are better paid than those in government health facilities. The situation represents a state's failure at governance and in protecting the basic human rights of its people. Since February 2009, there has been a gradual re-opening of some health facilities.

Irish Aid and HIV/AIDS Support in Zimbabwe

Irish Aid has supported Zimbabwe since the country's independence in 1980. In 2004, Irish Aid focussed some of their support to civil society organisations involved Home Based Care (HBC) initiatives for HIV/AIDS that provide direct support to families and communities through care and treatment kits, management of opportunistic infections and nutritional support for individuals receiving Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART). The following case studies have been developed by Tendayi and Cynthia Kureya who are consultants based in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital city. The stories were written by individual members of each of the organisations documented below. They outline some of the difficulties experienced by those living with HIV and AIDS across Zimbabwe, and how limited support from donor countries such as Ireland, can have positive results.

SEE ALSO:

Zimbabwe

Zambia

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