Living in Zimbabwe with 20 million % inflation.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
, Posted by Eco Africa Social Ventures at 4:30 PM
Imagine this as your regular everyday routine, whether as a homemaker or if you are lucky enough to have a job. (90% of the population hasn't)
You awake in the morning and what is your day plan looking like? For Zimbabwean middle class women the first thing on their minds is the evening meal for the family, or how to have one.
The plan, after dropping the kids off at school, is to pop into the bank to withdraw money to buy food for tonight. Simple? Not in Zimbabwe right now. First, your plan must include visits to all five banks where you have set up accounts recently. The reason for this is that banks are only permitted to hand out a maximum of the equivalent of $0.50 cents (USD) of ones own money per day. That's not enough for the evening meal for five in the family. Off you go to the first bank.
What's that, a line around the block?
You join the line and two hours later you leave clutching your 15 billion Zim dollars in crisp 500 million dollar notes, then it's off to the next bank, to be repeated 4 times at four different banks.
By the time you get to a supermarket, after finding one that does not have totally empty shelves, the value of your money has dropped considerably. Aha! You spot a packet marked Economy Meat, just enough for a beef stew. You pick it up to check the price.
Wow....the price!!! That will be $3,425,000,000,000.00, (or 3 trillion, 425 billion dollars). The equivalent of $130.00 USD. If you stay in the store for another hour the price will have risen dramatically.
You turn and leave. Sigh.. another evening of stewed veggies bought on a street corner from a vendor which takes up the entire six hours worth of money collected from lining up at banks all day. This is but one of the ways where life has become impossible for the average person to live normally under 20 million percent inflation.
And this is for the middle class educated person. Imagine what it must be like for a poor person living in the countryside, dealing daily with currency in the trillions and losing its value by the hour.
By the way, did I mention the fact that the balance of your salary left over in your account will probably be worthless in a month? In fact you will be probably in overdraft through the bank charges.
Check out our website for more information on what EASV is doing in Zimbabwe to give hope to women to enable them to take care of their families, and how you too can help: http://www.ecoafricasocialventures.org
Janice,
This is absolutely marvelous! It's the story I've heard you tell so many times but now it's there for everyone to read. Congratulations! Your first blog is a winner!
Anna
Janice,
It is incredible for most here living in the US,to fathom such hardships. Each day presents new and seemingly insurmountable obstacles for these people. Your blog is a wonderful way to share the reality of the situation in Zimbabwe. I'm looking forward to reading and forwarding to others, your observations and experiences. Blogging is a wonderful mode of communication!
Jude Harzer
Olá Janice,
Parábens pelo seu novo blog.
Espero que ajude a divulgar cada vez mais a ECO AFRICA entre cada vez mais pessoas de boa vontade.
Fica com DEUS,
Ricardo Frugoli
Brasil
Translated Version Bellow:
Hi Janice,
Congratulations by your brand new
blog. That it show to even more
ECO AFRICA to even more good will
people.
Keep with GOD,
Ricardo Frugoli
Brazil