EcoAfrica Social Ventures

We are hearing a lot about how Zimbabwe is becoming normal since the the start of the unity government and the US dollarization of the currency.

This might be the case for the middle class, the wealthy, the new obscenely rich and many city dwellers. Yes the stores in the cities are now brimming with luxury and imported goods. When I was there in May I could have forgotten I was in Zimbabwe for a moment, lumbering out of the supermarket with my trolley brimming over with the same selections as I could buy at Fairways near my Upper West Side apartment in New York.

BUT, go out of the cities and into the rural areas and there you see people without the means to purchase food - not because it cannot be found but because the prices have soared so high after dollarization that it has become completely unaffordable to people who have no access to US dollars. The value of what they are earning is so low in comparison to the US dollar prices that it may as well not be on display for all the ability they have to purchase it.

This is the main problem now in Zimbabwe for the poor. Before the hyper-inflation that ended with the local currency being abandoned, the money people earned would at least be enough to purchase what they needed to feed their families. Towards the end it meant speeding to the food stores within a day of receiving their wages so the prices would still be affordable. A week later if they had not already made their purchased the value of their money would have halved.

Now everything is permanently unaffordable. The funds we were sending over each month for our artisans buy only half of what they need. And here in the USA, with the economy in recession, the funds being raised are only half of what we need to send. All in all things are not good this year for our crafting artisans and we need to try ever harder to find ways to support the women and their families. We hear terrible stories of girl children selling themselves for a crust of bread, and women too, in full knowledge of the risks they take of contracting AIDS.

Sorry the news is bad readers. We have plans for future concerts and benefits - but for the moment, help us raise money by becoming a CHOC-O-HOLIC for a night on the 8th Sept. Oh... and please pass the invitation on.