Struggling to get by in one of the world's poorest nations

(Vatican Radio) It’s one of the three poorest countries in the world with 80 percent of the population unemployed. In Zimbabwe, more than 75 percent of its people currently live below the poverty line which means they have to eke out a living on less than 1.25 dollars a day. Fiona Mwashita is based in Zimbabwe and is a sub-regional manager for the Development charity Progressio. She spoke to Vatican Radio’s Susy Hodges about the extent of the poverty crisis in Zimbabwe.

Listen to the extended interview with Fiona Mwashita:

Mwashita describes the poverty situation in her homeland as very “worrisome” and especially the sky-high unemployment rate. Asked who are those most badly affected by poverty, she says, as always, it’s the most vulnerable, like “the women, children, orphans and the disabled.”

She says Zimbabwe is starting to come out of “an economic downturn” over the past decade which has seen the country’s mainly agricultural-based economy “performing badly,” partly because of persistent drought.

Mwashita says this drought means that water is a scarce commodity in many areas of Zimbabwe. Consequently, she says, one of the main “challenges” faced by the very poor is the “need for water for irrigation so they can produce food and sell it in markets” and because of the drought “people hardly produce enough to eat.”