Newsletters - Violence and the Family

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe has witnessed a steep increase in violence, intolerance and lawlessness permeating all facets of life. This is accompanied by a serious economic decline and widespread corruption impacting negatively on family life in a number of ways:

Increasing unemployment is robbing families of their breadwinners with some resorting to scavenging for survival.
High inflation rates with an ever rising cost of living have resulted in a very high percentage of families living below the poverty line.
There is a general increase in wife beating, torture and rape, especially of very young children.
Young people after finishing school have little hope for gainful employment and become easy victims of political indoctrination or turn to crime.
Due to high medical fees and lack of drugs, the child mortality rate has increased, and those infected with HIV/AIDS succumb faster to the virus.
The number of orphans and childled households is rising by the day, with some of them ending up on the streets of the bigger cities.
The traditional social net of the extended family has been seriously affected.
Polarisation and political patronage have divided families along the political divide.
Even food distribution to drought stricken areas is carried out along political party lines causing some people to depend on wild fruits or die of hunger.

Some ways forward

Our cathedral offered relief assistance and shelter (by providing tents in the cathedral grounds during the rainy season without adequate sanitation) to 50 displaced people before they could be re-located. A child was born in the tents!
Before the beginning of the last rainy season, the Mothers’ Union, with a donation from Mary Sumner House, London, distributed seeds to 1300 households of the most vulnerable families in the drought-stricken areas of our diocese.
When Manicaland was hit by a cyclone and many families lost their homes and harvests, the Diocese established an Anglican Care Relief Fund to assist the victims. This Fund is now a permanent feature although the funds have dwindled.
During election time our churches were declared sanctuary zones offering shelter to anyone in danger.
The Diocese recently opened its first lay training centre at St. Augustine’s Mission (the oldest Anglican mission station in Zimbabwe). The centre puts a strong emphasis on advocacy issues as an integral part of all its training courses.
The Mothers’ Union has created a widows’ revolving fund which assists widows’ groups (widows make up more than 50% of MU members) to start income-generating projects after undergoing training in basic business skills. The intention is to empower them economically and enable them to fend for their children.

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