A pastor of the ELCZ tells the story of being "Hungry, Sick, and Dying in Zimbabwe" in the fall issue of LF. But a picture is worth a thousand words, especially in the case of rampant political corruption and horrifying violence. Here are some pictures of what God's children are suffering in Zimbabwe.

Empty supermarkets--even if you had the money, there's nothing to buy.

A billboard in Mesina, a border town between Zimbabwe and South Africa

Houses destroyed during political violence from March to June 2008.

Children sitting under a baobab tree shade after walking for days without food on their way to South Africa as they run away from the Zimbabwean crisis. Even for those who make it, it is a perilous business, and many of the girls resort to prostitution for survival. You see them sleeping under bridges and picking food from dump sites--then you easily know they are from Zimbabwe (See article in The Independent [UK] 11 December 2008).

An innocent victim of cholera. "The UN believes that 54% of all children who have died from cholera were malnourished, with 47% of the country's population undernourished." Zimbabwe is now the most food aid-dependent country in the world. The World Food Programme believes that seven million (65% to 80%) people are in need of food assistance.

Commercial farmers have been recently brutalised and evicted by war veterans despite the government of national unit saying farm invasions should stop.

Militants attacked this farmer's home and threatened to eat his children.

Victims of the March to June 2008 post election violence perpetuated by government forces. We have a lot of them in our churches and they are not able to speak out for fear of further victimization. They are also hoping that justice will be done against the perpetrators but this seems to be impossible in the near future. The idea of healing of memories and reconciliation is spoken of at academic levels. Certain pastors have tried to put in place structures where people can talk to each other in the presence of a pastor in the rural areas. This seems to be working but it is challenged financially.

 
These photos are from footage shown on South African broadcasting corporation about the desperate situation of Zimbabwe's prisons. “Zimbabwe’s prisoners are suffering untold horrors in Zimbabwe’s jails. The State is locking them up in hell-holes, condemning them to slow starvation and possible death from nutrition-related illnesses or the vast array of other diseases they are exposed to through unhygienic conditions. Despite terrible desperation, their position as 'prisoners' means they are denied the most basic human instinct and that is to fight for survival: inmates can’t beg for food from passersby, they can’t forage for wild berries in the bush, and they can’t rummage through dustbins for waste food. Because of this, Zimbabwe’s prisons constitute a unique and especially cruel form of torture that has both physical and psychological impacts on the people affected” (visit Crikey for the whole story).

Another site has images that are tragically comic about the insane inflation rates in Zimbabwe. A mountain of Zimbabwean currency barely makes US $100. People still have this kind of money but businesses no longer accept it. People used to carry it paper bags to go and buy a loaf of bread; now they have to use US dollars.