Poor people's testimony: Living on a dollar a day in Zimbabwe

(Vatican Radio) Zimbabwe is the third most impoverished country in the world with three quarters of its population living in poverty. Average life expectancy in the nation stands at just 51 years. So, when you are living on just over one dollar a day, what kind of food can you afford to put on the table for your family? And what do poor people say is the worst thing about their status? To find out more Vatican Radio’s Susy Hodges spoke to a man and a women who are living below the poverty line in Zimbabwe. She also spoke to a Zimbabwean official who works for Progressio, an international development charity that was set up to translate Catholic social teaching intro practical action.

Kelvin is a 25 year old man who is unemployed like the vast majority of Zimbabwe’s population.
He managed to acquire an education although his impoverished family often required outside help to help pay for the school fees. He also tells us how throughout his youth he has had to carry out odd jobs, both to help pay for his education and to support himself owing to the lack of regular employment.

Kelvin believes that one of the most difficult and demeaning things about being poor is that people do not bother to consult with you when it comes to making decisions about your future: “One of the worst things is you’re not involved in any key decision-making in life,” he says.

Kelvin says “there is poverty everywhere” in Zimbabwe and tells us how some poor people in his local community are resorting to extreme measures in order to get money to buy food. “These people force their children to go out and prostitute themselves” … or else they force them to contract “early marriages at the age of 10 and 11,” he says.

Vimba is a 44 year old Zimbabwean woman with four children who is also unemployed. She says life in her family is a constant struggle to get to the end of the month. “We never have enough money”… and some days “we don’t have enough food to eat.”

Vimba told us that the typical meal she prepares for her family is maize meal and vegetables. “Eggs, she says, “are a luxury, they are out of reach” whilst “meat is usually only eaten once a week” or even less often than that.

Like Kevin, Vimba says the lack of power and being excluded from the decision-making process is one of the worst things about being poor. She says: “it’s not being able to do the things that you know are best for your family… this makes my life very difficult.” And when it comes to her future hopes, Vimba, not surprisingly, says “I want a better life for my children than I have had.”

Philimon Handinahama works for Progressio, a development charity that seeks to uplift the lives of those living in poverty like Kelvin and Vimba. He says the HIV/Aids epidemic in Zimbabwe has significantly "increased poverty" in the nation and explains how Progressio works with a local network of Christian churches.

Listen to the interviews with Kelvin, Vimba and Handinahama: