Refugees International: Reports: Zimbabwe Photo Report: The Plight of Displaced Farm Workers

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Zimbabwe Photo Report: The Plight of Displaced Farm Workers

In 2000, the Government of Zimbabwe, led by President Robert Mugabe and the ZANU-PF political party, embarked upon a program of radical land redistribution designed to address the inequalities of land ownership in Zimbabwe. In the aftermath of this program, the production of food has dropped and the economy has been crippled by skyrocketing inflation. The farm worker population prior to the program was variously estimated at between 325,000 to 450,000 workers, who supported a population of between 1.5 to 2 million people. It has been estimated that 78% of farm workers have lost their jobs.

Zimbabwe 2004 - Female Farm Workers

07/22/2004
A survey among pregnant women in 2000, when the land reform program was just starting, showed a HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 53.9% among farming communities. The lack of reliable income and increased insecurity brought by the land reform program has increased the susceptibility of former farm workers to HIV/AIDS. Some of the former farm workers that Refugees International interviewed reported that many female farm workers were not paid "severance packages" when the farmers left and had to resort to many risky strategies to survive. Some had turned to prostitution and others had formed sexual alliances with farm foremen or new settlers in order to be guaranteed some sort of farm employment to feed their children. In addition, these women that RI interviewed said that the combination of transportation costs to nearby towns and the costs of condoms and birth control pills were too high for them to pay for. When faced with choosing between safe sex or feeding their families, they chose unsafe sex.

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Zimbabwe 2004 - Internally Trapped Farm Workers

Zimbabwe 2004 - Orphaned Due to High Rates of HIV/AIDS

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