PART ONE A. Heat and Hunger: October in Matabeleland As we enter the closing months of 2011, the residents of Matabeleland and Bulawayo are facing particular challenges within a greater Zimbabwean context that remains very difficult for all low‐income families. While nationally Zimbabwe is more food secure at the end of 2011 than it has been for several years, parts of Zimbabwe suffered serious crop failure earlier this year and many households remain too impoverished to purchase maize meal from stores. Households scattered throughout Matabeleland are already dealing with severe hunger. By late September, one in ten families in two rural wards of Gwanda, Matabeleland South, reported entire days without any meals once a fortnight at least, with almost half of households indicating a day without food in the last two months.1 Only 17% of families reported eating three meals a day, meaning that 83% of households were, weeks before the onset of the official “hungry season”, already making food compromises daily. The randomly selected sample group included families with large numbers of children, grandchildren and orphans. A follow up of some of these families in late October showed a worsening situation. Grazing is critical, and people are traveling further to find water. This has been one of the hottest Octobers on record. Several families reported that baboons were killing and eating young goats and chickens, as the hunger now affects all living creatures in this area. Several families had no livestock left at all, not even one chicken. This hunger ‐ already so extreme ahead of the recognized “peak hunger season” that officially lasts from October to February ‐ is taking place at a time when Bulawayo, traditionally the source of employment and resources for Matabeleland, has seen a cataclysmic loss of jobs in industry in the last two years. This means that part of the greater support system for rural Matabeleland is highly compromised. Deportations As deportations from South Africa gain momentum, the 17% of rural families that receive monthly remittances stand to lose this little extra means of support. All 47% of families with members in the diaspora will have extra mouths to feed during the hungriest months of the year, as or when the deportees return.2 Deportees to Zimbabwe have little likelihood of finding formal, productive employment and will merely exacerbate the plight of struggling households. 1. Donor plans for Feeding of Vulnerable Groups (FVG) 2011‐2012 Matabeleland South, southern Midlands, Masvingo and parts of Manicaland had the least successful harvests last season, and have the highest vulnerability. Donors have predicted that the prevalence of food insecure households will be lower at the end of 1 Most of Matabeleland South suffered almost total crop failure in the last growing season – as did extensive parts of Midlands, Masvingo and parts of Manicaland. The hunger we document in this report is being experienced more widely in Zimbabwe. 2 See Part Two of this report for more details on the Gwanda survey: we found that 47% of families had up to 3 family members in South Africa, but only 17% received remittances of $25 per month or more. 7