Charity
Inter-Country Peoples Aid

We hope you find the information presented here, about the work of IPA in informal settlements, interesting. If you would like to receive IPA’s email monthly bulletin, which provides more information about their programmes, please email Effie Malianga at effie@ipa.co.zw

IPA’s History

Inter-Country Peoples' Aid was established as a Zimbabwean, Non-Governmental Organisation in 1994 and is registered with the Department of Social Welfare, the Ministry of Public Services and the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare. When Inter-Country Peoples' Aid was founded, its activities were focused on Mozambican refugees, running mine awareness campaigns for UNHCR in five refugee camps within Zimbabwe. In anticipation of the successful repatriation programme of May 1995, Inter-Country Peoples' Aid began to broaden its remit to include projects benefiting disadvantaged Zimbabweans and Mozambicans in their respective countries. Projects successfully completed and handed over by Inter-Country Peoples' Aid since 1995 include brick moulding, market gardening and health care initiatives in Manica Province, Mozambique and a stone sculpture workshop and crafts co-operative in the high density suburb of Mbare in Harare.

A child waiting to collect water in Hatcliffe Extension

Guided by their mandate to empower the most disadvantaged members of society, Inter-Country Peoples' Aid's strategic focus is now on informal settlements in peri-urban areas surrounding Harare. Programme areas are Child Welfare, Education, Environment & Sanitation, Health & HIV/AIDS, Poverty Alleviation, and Research, Information and Advocacy.

A group of children from Hatcliffe Extension

Informal Settlements in Zimbabwe

Dzivarasekwa Extension, Hatcliffe Extension and Porta Farm are just three of a number of peri-urban informal settlements that exist around Harare and in Zimbabwe as a whole. According to a book published by Mambo Press and the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe, entitled Urban Housing: A National Crisis?:

“The problem of squatters exists in all cities and towns of Zimbabwe...Rapid urbanisation resulting from the ever-increasing rural-urban drift, has far outstripped the existing housing supply. This is due in large measure to both inadequate and inappropriate housing provision and policies. Other contributing factors include the high unemployment rate due to a lack of appropriate skills and the current economic difficulties arising from the Structural Adjustment Programme. In Harare the problem has been growing steadily and will reach alarming proportions unless urgent steps are taken to provide appropriate low-cost housing....In a study carried out by local Town Planning experts in 1994, commissioned by the Zimbabwe Institute of Urban Planners, it was reported that 110,000 (or approximately 10% of the Harare urban population) were squatters living in informal settlements in places like Dzivarasekwa, Hatcliffe, Porta and Churu Farms, Korstein in Seke and Epworth...”

In fact, the issue of informal settlements in Zimbabwe is multifaceted and covers a range of situations in both urban, peri-urban, and rural settings. For example, Horizon magazine reports, "government's latest attempt to solve the land problem through the designation of about 1500 mostly white-owned, large scale commercial farms, threatens to worsen the squatter problem in the country...there's nowhere for the farm workers to go. It all adds up to a squatter crisis of disastrous proportions." (Inter-Country Peoples’ Aid no longer refers to the settlements as ‘squatter’ settlements, a reference considered degrading by many in the communities).

The peri-urban informal settlements in which Inter-Country Peoples' Aid intends to continue expanding its work are one particular type of informal settlement, commonly referred to by the government as "temporary holding camps." Because of the "temporary" nature of informal settlements, various sectors of the government have shown a reluctance to accept responsibility for extending services. Therefore, services in the area of housing, education, health, sanitation, and basic infrastructure are entirely inadequate, if provided at all.

This policy has a particularly negative impact on the healthy development of children. Children who were born at Dzivarasekwa Extension, Hatcliffe Extension or Porta Farm are now nine years old, spending their formative years in a "temporary" environment. Adults and children alike are aware of their marginalised situation, and have worked in collaboration with Inter-Country Peoples’ Aid to improve their livelihood.

Inter-Country Peoples' Aid is currently working with the peri-urban informal settlements of Dzivarasekwa Extension, Hatcliffe Extension and Porta Farm. Our programmes concentrate on the following areas:

• Sanitation and Environmental Health
• Education
• Child Welfare and Children in Difficult Circumstances
• Health and HIV/AIDS
• Poverty Alleviation
• Research Information and Advocacy

Contact

Director: Effie Malianga

Address: Inter-Country Peoples' Aid
PO Box CY2008, Causeway, Harare
Zimbabwe

Tel/Fax: (263-4) 776304/746175