Donate for Zimbabwe
Help in Zimbabwe
The climate crisis is having a clear impact in Zimbabwe: the country is currently facing one of the worst droughts in 40 years. Large parts of the harvest have been destroyed.Storms such as Cyclone Idai also regularly cause severe damage. As a result, more and more people are living in poverty and hunger is growing.
Help has been strengthening the local people's ability to help themselves since 1992: We promote sustainable agriculture and thus secure the livelihoods of families in need.
How is Help providing support in Zimbabwe?
Agriculture in Zimbabwe: independence through diversity
Help has been active in Zimbabwe for 30 years. Initially, our aid work focused on emergency relief measures following the severe drought in 1992. This was followed by numerous projects in the areas of nutrition, education and health.
Today, our projects focus primarily on strengthening the economy and overcoming the climate crisis. We are particularly committed to helping small farmers in rural areas. We distribute seeds that grow particularly well in dry soils and provide training in water-conserving vegetable cultivation. We also train young people in chicken farming and provide them with laying hens. With the eggs they produce, the smallholders can secure food for their families or offer the eggs for sale. We support them with marketing.
Honey is also a good commodity in Zimbabwe. That is why over 700 smallholder farmers manage their own bee colonies thanks to Help. The sale of honey provides people with a secure livelihood and enough income to pay school fees and medical expenses, for example.
An important aspect of our work is the " imitation effect". Smallholder farmers who have undergone our training in chicken farming and soil cultivation often triple their earnings compared to others. As so-called "lead farmers", they then share their knowledge with their neighbors and become role models. This enables us to achieve a far-reaching impact.
When hunger makes the stomach clench
Maria (84) lives with her grandson (13) in a small hut in Ranjemba. Five years ago, she was still farming here herself, but the periods of drought are getting longer and longer. She no longer has a regular income and there is a lack of water and, above all, food. As a result, Maria's health has deteriorated dramatically over the last few months. She can only move with pain and can no longer fully stretch her spine, so she usually sits.
Many people in Zimbabwe are like Maria. The El Niño weather phenomenon has significantly intensified the drought and caused extreme heatwaves. In the coming months, around 57 per cent of the rural population will not have enough to eat. Help is helping people like Maria to survive the drought: We have provided her and her grandson with enough food to last a year.
Me and my grandson are starving. I had my last meal the day before yesterday. I tied my stomach with a rope so I wouldn't feel the hunger.
Maria, 84
What is the situation like in Zimbabwe?
The breadbasket of Africa is drying up
The country is currently experiencing one of the worst droughts in the past 40 years. 7.6 million people are affected, including 3.5 million children. In addition, over 100 cases of cholera have been confirmed in Zimbabwe since fall 2024.
Every year, the population of Zimbabwe suffers more from the consequences of climate change. Major droughts and heatwaves destroy the harvest. Rainfall is distributed extremely unevenly and causes flood disasters that inundate roads, houses and fields. This alternation between drought and flood threatens people's livelihoods, as around 70 percent of households in Zimbabwe are dependent on the harvest.
After the severe Cyclone Idai in March 2019 and the subsequent flooding, thousands of people were left homeless. The harvests were destroyed shortly before the start of the harvest season - a catastrophe, as people are suffering from food shortages due to the crop failures. There is hardly anything left of the former breadbasket of Africa.
Added to this is the severe economic crisis in which the country finds itself. High unemployment and extreme inflation are the reason why so many people in Zimbabwe live below the poverty line. Supply bottlenecks are the order of the day: the availability of water, basic foodstuffs, petrol and electricity is steadily decreasing.
Help smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe to strengthen their livelihoods.
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Q&A
In recent years, climate change has led to increased droughts and irregular rainfall in Zimbabwe, which has since had a massive impact on agricultural production and caused food shortages. Water resources are becoming scarcer as rivers dry up and dams store less water. Extreme weather events such as floods are occurring more frequently, destroying infrastructure and endangering people's livelihoods. Rising temperatures are exacerbating the spread of diseases such as malaria, as the habitats of mosquitoes are expanding. Overall, Zimbabwe's already unstable economy is being put under additional strain by climate change, which is increasing poverty and migration.
The weather phenomenon El Niño occurs every two to seven years in the Pacific and has an impact on global weather developments. El Niño is also felt in Zimbabwe, most recently in spring 2024, when El Niño caused prolonged drought in southern Africa. There was no rain in Zimbabwe: Around 80 percent of the country recorded significantly lower rainfall than usual. There was a massive slump in the grain harvest and the president had to declare a state of disaster. According to the World Food Program, southern Africa experienced the driest February in 40 years in 2024.
Our projects in Zimbabwe are funded by the following donors:
- Aktion Deutschland Hilft
- Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ)
- USAID
Find out which local partners we work with in Zimbabwe: Our partners
HIV/AIDS is widespread in Zimbabwe and remains one of the most common and serious diseases, despite progress in treatment and prevention. Around 1.3 million people are living with HIV, including arounds 70.000 children under the age of 14. Malaria occurs mainly in the lower-lying regions and is a major cause of illness and death, especially in the rainy season. Tuberculosis is also common and often occurs in combination with HIV/AIDS, making treatment difficult. Diarrheal diseases, especially in children, are widespread due to poor water and hygiene conditions and often lead to malnutrition. Cholera outbreaks and typhoid occur regularly, especially in times of water scarcity or after floods that worsen sanitary conditions.