POOR parents are marrying off their children to wealthier families who have food.
This is among the extreme coping mechanisms households have reportedly adopted in the country’s worsening food crisis.
Save the Children reported children were forced to eat only once a day, while others had been taken out of school as parents could not afford to keep them there.
Other families are reducing their daily meal intake, selling off livestock and other assets and migrating, often unsafely, to neighbouring countries such as South Africa.
William Lynch, Save the Children’s country director in Zimbabwe, described the situation in the country as extremely complex.
“For girls in particular, we’re hearing the situation is leaving them with limited options and is driving them into early marriage,” he said.
The agency warned that, without a major increase in humanitarian response in Zimbabwe, lives would be lost as children and their families adopted desperate measures to survive.
“Zimbabweans have been pushed to their absolute limits in recent years and now the country is on the brink of collapse,” Lynch said.
At least 7,7 million people, or half of the population, are severely food insecure in rural and urban Zimbabwe.
More than 3,8 million children are affected. Zimbabwe is facing its worst food crisis since 2008, with the highest inflation rate in the world, estimated at 300%.
Cash shortages, high unemployment, and persistent increases in the cost of basic goods and services are worsening the situation.
Lynch appealed to the international community to assist.
“Governments, NGOs and donors must pull together now,” he said. – CAJ NEWS
