Hwange West Area Program

Hwange West is a sparsely populated community in northern Zimbabwe, 40 kilometres from the famed town of Victoria Falls. Two minority groups, the Nambya and Tonga, make up the population of about 16,000. The hot climate has recently been prone to drought and the soil is of only low to medium fertility.

Subsistence farming includes millet, sorghum, maize and cowpeas. Livestock includes cattle, goats and sheep, and there is also some fishing. Many people depend on tourism related to nearby Victoria Falls where they sell curios and crafts.

Food insecurity has left over 10,000 residents dependent on emergency food aid. COVID-19 has worsened the situation. The pandemic has increased the practice of child marriage and caused a spike in the number of early pregnancies. Education outcomes are very poor, with few children passing national exams at primary school. In the area of health, only four health clinics—all under-resourced—serve the community.

Hwange West is nevertheless in a position to make economic progress given its proximity to Victoria Falls. Business training and local value chain development could support increased income from curio and craft production. Market gardening is also a possibility. Finally, and unlike the rest of the country, Hwange West is not politically polarized and political violence is unknown.

Just over 12,000 of Hwange West's 16,000 residents are children. Combined with the fact that over 70 per cent of residents live in poverty, it is primarily the community's children who are being prevented from reaching their full potential. While the challenges are many, the community has identified water, health, education and child protection as priorities for improvement.

Health
Access to healthcare is very limited. There are only four health clinics, and two have no working borehole for water. All are dilapidated, and short of equipment and medicine. Access to water and adequate sanitation is a problem community-wide. Sanitation coverage is just 35 per cent, which encourages open defecation and spreads water-borne disease. Several villages in the area have no protected water source at all. The child mortality rate is 13 per cent higher than the already high rate for the country overall. Nutrition is poor given that 73 per cent of households are food insecure, up 50 percent since 2018. HIV infection rates are high at 17.7 per cent, which is slightly above the national average, and attributed to the impact of the Victoria Falls tourist hub.

Education
Distance, lack of school fees, poor infrastructure and early marriage all combine to hamper enrolment or results in failing grades when students do attend. Schools typically lack enough desks, textbooks and latrines. Secondary schools serve areas with a radius of over 10 kilometres, further inhibiting attendance. Almost 20 per cent of children do not attend school and about 40 per cent do not attend any early childhood development centres. Pass rates for primary schools over the last five years are just 10 per cent and are even lower for secondary schools.

Child Protection and Participation
The dominant religion is a combination of Christianity and indigenous belief systems whose practices, such as overnight vigils, put children at risk. Extremely high unemployment levels have led parents to seek work in neighbouring countries, which leaves children at home vulnerable to abuse. Child marriages are numerous and have spiked in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. While lower than the national figure of 30 per cent, almost 10 per cent of children are orphans and there is no organization advocating for them. Birth registration, which is important for child protection, hovers around 50 per cent. However, a tough registration system that is especially hard on single mothers makes raising this figure a challenge.

Education
To help children develop the skills for future economic self-empowerment, World Vision will:

• Partner with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education on technical programs to raise pass rates and reduce drop-out rates.
• Establish reading camps and train teachers in order to improve their teaching techniques.
• Provide life-skills training and income-generating opportunities to out-of-school youth.
• Support school development committees with sustainable income-generating projects to offset impact of reduced income from school fees.

Health
To improve outcomes regarding health, water, sanitation and hygiene, World Vision will:

• Partner with the government's District Development Fund on technical programs to provide access to clean water from safe sources such as by rehabilitating non-functional boreholes.
• Work with the Ministry of Health to improve behavioural change toward sanitation and hygiene.
• Support the community-led construction of latrines.
• Work with the government on issues of child nutrition and implement a school health policy.

Child Protection and Participation
To promote child safety and gender equality, World Vision will:

• Prioritize for support the most vulnerable children such as the 10 per cent of Hwange West children who are orphans.
• Operate technical programs that create safe spaces and environments for children.
• Resuscitate and strengthen child protection committees to improve reporting and referral of child protection issues.
• Engage faith leaders from different churches and sects to improve how they interact and communicate with children.