Rokpa Projects In Zimbabwe

Overview

• Total Population: 12.2 Million

• GNP per capita per year: US$460
  (compared with US$33,900 in the USA)

• Total adult literacy rate: 87% (85% females, 93% males)

• Infant mortality rate (per 1000 live births): 69

• Life expectancy: 39.9 years

• HIV/AIDS: More than 25% of the adult population is HIV positive. In other words Zimbabwe has the world's highest HIV-positive rate. Thousands of children have lost one or both parents due to AIDS.

Within the last few years economic and social changes have brought great poverty to this country. Survival is increasingly difficult due to a continuous rise in living costs and a collapsing health system. The rate of inflation is 70% and the unemployment rate is 60%.

As many as 70% of the population in Zimbabwe are now living below the poverty line. The cost of essential foods and medicines are out of reach for millions of people. One survey found that over 70% of people in high-density urban areas have only one full meal every three days. Because transport costs are so high many people need to walk miles to get to work.

Rokpa's charity work covers a wide range of support in the high density areas of Harare . In its attempt to respond to the growing needs of the poor, Rokpa is constantly expanding its projects as resources become available.

Rokpa helps by:

Supplying Food

to families with disabled children, destitute people, single mothers and orphans. Many families also get money for school fees.

Providing Medicines

A number of HIV infected people who have developed AIDS are supplied with anti-retroviral drugs and vitamins at a cost of £30 a month for one person. Medicines are also supplied to the destitute who cannot afford the prescription drugs.

Providing Training and Start-up Funds for Businesses

in permaculture and small income generating projects such as making peanut-butter, soap or producing seedlings for sale. This is particularly for women with disabled children and those caring for orphans. £50 is given for a start-up fund.

A new business that will be especially beneficial

The leaves of the Moringa Tree are high in vitamins and minerals and can be used to make a nutritional supplement which helps boost the immune system of people suffering from HIV and AIDS. A group of mothers are being sponsored by Rokpa to buy and plant 500 of the trees and to harvest the leaves for sale.

100 gramms of maringa leaves contain:

Learning to live with HIV

BENJAMIN RUPONDO, fifteen years old and infected with HIV at birth, is one of a growing number of young people in Zimbabwe with the virus.

Because of the stigma attached to HIV and AIDS it is still rare for people to admit they are infected - but Benjamin recently attended a meeting and met other HIV positive youngsters. He said afterwards: "The best thing was realising I am not alone." By openly talking about their condition these teenagers are helping to increase openess about HIV.

Benjamin, like many young people who are HIV positive, was infected by his mother, who also has the virus. His father died of AIDS when Benjamin was three years old.

Benjamin has had health problems all his life, and last year was found to be suffering from full blown AIDS. Rokpa now pays for anti retroviral drugs and vitamin supplements, which will help Benjamin stay as healthy as possible and have a better quality of life.

At £20 a month for anti-retroviral drugs and £8 for nutritional supplement this sort of treatment is beyond the reach of most people in Zimbabwe where an average worker earns around £12 a month.

Rokpa is now supporting a handful of teenagers who are HIV positive, but we would like to do more.

There are many more young people like Benjamin who need our help, including a ten year old girl whose mother came to ask for our help.

£20 a month for anti retroviral drugs and £8 for nutritional supplements.