Responding to Zimbabwe's Cholera Epidemic

Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is helping prevent the further spread of cholera in Zimbabwe by ramping up our health and hygiene promotion activities and looking for opportunities to deliver clean water, provide portable sanitation facilities and procure supplies such as soap, feminine hygiene products and similar items.

Your donation can help us expand our existing health-promotion activities and supply families with items they need to avoid of the epidemic.

The death toll has reached nearly 1,200 and the number of suspected cases have climbed to 23,712, according to UNICEF.

"As soon as the rainy season really starts, which should be any day now, the WHO is expecting a massive increase in cholera," said Rob Maroni, who directs Mercy Corps' Zimbabwe programs from the capital, Harare. "At present, they're predicting 60,000 cases."

So far, Mercy Corps has integrated hygiene education into all our programs, distributed water-purification tablets, oral rehydration salts, soap and five-gallon buckets to community groups and orphanages. We are providing some small support to district-level Ministry of Health offices and are working with medical supply organizations to secure family hygiene kits. Your donation can help us send additional resources.

Please make a gift today to our Zimbabwe Cholera Fund to help families affected by the epidemic.