Zimbabwe has been dealing with chronic economic meltdown, political strife and a dwindling humanitarian insulation for numerous years, but the past several months have proven much worse than usual. The country has been battling one of the world’s largest Cholera outbreaks, according to the World Health Organization, and, as Medecins Sans Frontieres (Zimbabwe’s international medical aid agency) says, it is one which is only getting worse. The group blamed the collapse of the country’s health system for the devastating and ongoing spread of Cholera, along with other health-related issues the area currently faces.

Since August, at least 3,623 people have died and 76,127 people have been infected throughout Zimbabwe with the water-borne disease. As if a rampant, deadly disease was not enough for a poorly funded and previously mismanaged African country, the area has been hit hard by drought, HIV, a 90% unemployment rate, and unheard of inflation (which spawned the 10 billion Zimbabwean dollar note), severe poverty and a mostly-collapsed agriculture industry and educational system.

The country’s newly-sworn-in cabinet has a massive task ahead of them: turn the poor, diseased and broken country back into the “bread basket of South Africa” that it once was. Anything close to that would be welcomed at this point.

Emily Holbrook
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