13 consequence of Operation Murambatsvina 30. Women affected by Operation Murambatsvina had little choice other than to move to the rural areas with or without those to whom they were providing care31. After Operation Murambatsvina, the number of people surveyed by ActionAid receiving home-based care fell from 63% to 24%. Many people receiving subsidised ARV treatment were no longer able to continue their drug regime as a result of these upheavals 32. The number of people using Nevirapine dropped from 20% to 7% and the use of ART from 61% to 33%. Women form a disproportionate number of those living with HIV/AIDS33. In many other instances people doubled (or tripled) up in houses and rooms available in the cities, often in the tiny one or two roomed buildings which house domestic workers on properties in the wealthier suburbs. Such cramped conditions, combined with economic hardship, are widely recognised as creating the conditions for the sexual abuse and exploitation of vulnerable women and children34. Women arriving in rural areas, having lost their means of livelihood would not have been in any better position as they encountered widespread food shortages and reports that food distribution was politicised. 54% of surveyed households reported that they were in a position of food insecurity since Operation Murambatsvina 35. The loss of economic independence would inevitably have created the conditions for sexual exploitation, with 73% of surveyed households reporting that they had lost their source of income36. This dependence on food handouts meant that political choice would be greatly reduced as a result. A second option to relocation into the rural areas, was to cross the border into South Africa to seek refuge or work. Single, childless women could more easily join the tide of refugees who have crossed the border to South Africa since 200037. Indeed, ZTVP (Zimbabwe Torture Victims/Survivors Project) reported a large increase in women approaching it for assistance in the aftermath of Operation Murambatsvina 38. The average age of the women surveyed by ZTVP was thus only 29, with the majority unmarried. 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 ActionAid Report p18 ibid ActionAid Report pv-vi HSRC Gender and HIV/AIDS: Focus on Southern Africa 7 June 2004 at http://www.hsrc.ac.za/media/2004/6/20040607_2.html accessed 26/11/06. 35% of people surveyed in the ActionAid Report acknowledged increased vulnerability to such abuse p18. ActionAid Report p3 Ibid. There are an estimated three million Zimbabweans in “the Diaspora” as this relocation has become known. See ZTVP(2006), Women on the run: Women survivors of torture amongst refugees in South Africa. Report produced for CSVR & Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, JOHANNESBURG: CSVR [in press]. “A Woman’s Place is in the Home ?” – Gender Based Violence and Opposition Politics in Zimbabwe.