WFP aids food insecure families in Bulawayo 

THE World Food Programme (WFP) and partners have come to the rescue of at least 15 000 food insecure people in Bulawayo including children from 2 007 households.

WFP officials and its partners yesterday visited various households benefiting from its urban food insecure aid programme in the second biggest city’s suburbs.

They were assessing the situation following the monetary assistance families have been getting since the start of the programme in September 2022.

The programme is set to end this month end.

The programme is being implemented in partnership with the government and other donor agencies that chipped in with funding.

“The targeted beneficiaries are drawn from Makokoba, Mzilikazi G Square, Burombo Flats, Sidojiwe Flats, Old Pumula, Minyela, Mabuthweni, Tshabalala, Sizinda and Old Lobengula.

The cash assistance programme was made possible by Irish Aid, the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations and the Swiss Agency for Co-operation and Development.

“The beneficiaries are assisted with money through the Western Union and they are getting US$13 per person and they are also trained in various programmes,” an official, who preferred to remain anonymous told NewsDay yesterday.

“We go into the whole of Makokoba and get into a house where we are accepted. Some say they do not want to, so we seek consent and if we are allowed in, then we go through the questionnaire,” the official added.

“The details will be punched into a system, which will analyse and pick people through level of vulnerability. From there, it runs down syntax and gives the order of vulnerability for each house, so we will be taking the most vulnerable going down until we get our target number.

“So on top of the US$13 per individual in a household per month, they will be given US$5 each per month. The reason for these vulnerable groups being vulnerable is that they have additional nutritional requirements.”

A beneficiary from Makokoba, Sarudzai Mungori and her husband Lovemore Ndebele, said the programme had saved them from starvation.

“We have been struggling to feed our family. We are a family of 10. We survived through vending, but we were struggling to get enough food. We want to thank WFP for this help. They have saved us a lot,” Mungori said.

“We have been getting this assistance since September 2022, we are getting it through the Western Union. At first, we would go all of us to get the money but later my husband would go and now it is me who usually go to collect it.”

WFP officials said according to statistics, the number of food insecure people has gone up due to drought.

“If you compare results of the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC) 2023 report, for Bulawayo only, it said 27% of the people were food insecure, the figure had gone high to 41% of population in Bulawayo in 2024 being food insecurity.

“Most of the affected families are those with elderly, people with disabilities and large families with no support from anywhere,” the officials said.

The ZimVAC report stated that the food insecure population in Bulawayo was 27% of the population, translating to 181 308 households in 2023, adding that it has risen to 41%, translating to 272 804 people in 2024.

WFP in Zimbabwe is assisting more than 63 000 households in urban areas and a third are in Bulawayo.