Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe, former Rhodesia, is located in southern Africa between South Africa and Zambia and has nearly 14 million inhabitants.

Zimbabwe has only been independent of Great-Britain since 1980. Robert MUGABE, the nation's first prime minister, has been the country's only ruler (as president since 1987) and has dominated the country's political system since independence. His chaotic land redistribution campaign, which began in 1997 and intensified after 2000, caused an exodus of white farmers, crippled the economy, and ushered in widespread shortages of basic commodities. In November 2017, Vice President Emmerson MNANGAGWA took over following a military intervention that forced MUGABE to resign. MNANGAGWA was inaugurated president days later.

Zimbabwe's economy depends heavily on its mining and agriculture sector. Lower mineral prices, infrastructure and regulatory deficiencies, a poor investment climate, a large public and external debt burden, and extremely high government wage expenses impede the country’s economic performance.
The economy has collapsed and the once flourishing agricultural sector (especially cattle breeding) hardly exists anymore because of a failed land reform program. Even the mines do not deliver much and tourists ignore the country. Foreign NGOs and governments stopped supporting development projects because of the corrupt regime of President Mugabe, that lasted 30 years.

Almost 73% of the population lives below the poverty line. Unemployment is more than 90% (2014: 11.3%?). Zimbabwe has also been hit hard by HIV/AIDS: about 14% of the adult population is infected. A whole generation has been wiped out by the AIDS virus, many children, often at a very young age, have become orphan.  
 

HomePlan in Zimbabwe

HomePlan builds in remote rural communities, where poverty is enormous. People mainly live on the income from their own piece of land that is low due to the drought and the poor quality of the land. There is no electricity in the houses and people cook on wood. For drinking water they depend on a few water points.
Most houses are temporary inhospitable shelters of mud and willows with a thatched roof. Many houses are dilapidated and that is caused, among other things, by the heavy rains in the summer.