ZIA Network

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Mobilizing resources for the benefit of Zimbabweans is one of the priorities of ZIA Network. We entered strategic partnership with like-minded organizations both in North America and in Zimbabwe so we can mobilize resources and respond to the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe. Partners in Zimbabwe help identify critical needs while North America partners help ZIA Network respond to call to action.

Cholera response

It is the responsibility of national authorities to provide their citizens with clean drinking water and working sewer systems. Since 2008, over 4,165 people have been killed and close to 96,000 have been infected by the cholera epidemic (as of OCHA Update May 2009 - http://ochaonline.un.org/CholeraSituation/tabid/5147/language/en-US/Default.aspx). An easily treatable waterborne disease, cholera thrives in poor sanitary conditions. The disease has accelerated and spread in Zimbabwe due to systematic under-funding in water and sanitation infrastructure and health delivery service. Until the Zimbabwean authorities rise to this challenge, ZIA Network aims to intervene in a smart and effective way. Our response to the cholera epidemic makes the most out of every dollar in an effort to save as many lives as possible.

Safe drinking water is one of the world’s most pressing needs. According to the World Health Organization, over 1 billion people lack access to safe water. In our efforts to respond to the cholera situation in Zimbabwe, ZIA Network has found a simple way to reduce these unnecessary deaths by addressing basic needs for safe water.

The PUR packet (a water purifier, by Procter & Gamble) converts 10 liters of contaminated, potentially deadly water into clean and safe drinking water in a matter of minutes. PUR packets are an easily transportable and cost effective way of providing clean and safe drinking water to those who need it. Much smaller and lighter than shipments of plastic water bottles, a supply of PUR for a whole village can be transported in a large suitcase. It removes more than 99.99% of intestinal bacteria, which can cause cholera.

ZIA Network is delivering PUR in bulk shipments from all available locations. In February, the first shipment of 300,000 PUR packets was airlifted into Zimbabwe by ZIA Network partner; Pure Compassion Ministries. This supply translated into 3 million liters of clean, drinkable water.

The State of Health Services in Zimbabwe

In 2007, Zimbabwe was ranked by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) as one of its "Top 10" underreported health crises in the world. Handicapped by alarming shortages of medical supplies and equipment - from sutures and intravenous fluids, to HIV testing kits and renal dialysis chemicals - most public health programs have ground to a halt. In addition to the lack of medicine and supplies, there has been a massive exodus of skilled health personnel, which has contributed to the wider deterioration of the public health sector. The cost of access to the medical system continues to soar and highly preventable deaths continue to shock.

Life expectancy at birth for males in Zimbabwe has dramatically declined since 1990, from 60 to 37, the lowest in the world. Life expectancy for females is even lower at 34 years. Concurrently, the infant mortality rate has climbed from 53 to 81 deaths per 1,000 live births in the same period. Currently, 1.8 million Zimbabweans living with HIV lack access to anti-retroviral drugs since 2006.

The failing infrastructure is a victim of the turbulent political climate. Thousands live without access to clean water and sewage spills have contaminated most reservoirs in the nation. Zimbabwe has seen drastic increases in the number of reported cases of serious diarrhea, cholera, anthrax and childhood epidemics like measles. Drugs and medicines to treat these and other diseases are in very short supply.

Cholera response

We have no capacity or interest to take over the responsibility of authorities that under normal circumstances should provide clean drinkable water and working sewer systems across Zimbabwe. Instead, we have the capacity and interest to intervene in a smart and effective way – just as we have managed to sustain the life of the entire nation through our small individual remittances over the past decade.

Ours is an attempt to save as many lives as we can while we wait for the authorities to get their act together and do the work they are mandated to do. Our response to the cholera epidemic is possibly the most efficient of every dollar we get - making a difference where that money was meant.

Cholera is an easily treatable waterborne disease, which thrives in poor sanitary conditions and has been accelerated in Zimbabwe by systematic under-funding in water and sanitation infrastructure and health delivery service.

The cholera epidemic has killed more than 4 000 people and nearly 90,000 have been infected by this waterborne disease since the outbreak began in August 2008. According to the World Health Organization safe drinking water is one of the world’s greatest needs. More than 1 billion people in the world lack safe water and an estimated 2.2 million children die each year from diarrhoea. Many of these needless deaths could be prevented by providing safe drinking water.