Our partnership with Bopoma Villages

At the time of this project, Zimbabwe was in crisis. Many families were surviving on one meal a day and one in three children suffer from stunting due to chronic malnutrition. The country’s economy collapsed, inflation was the highest in the world and continued to spiral out of control. Moreover, flooding, followed by drought, decimated the agriculture. There were widespread shortages of food, medicine, fuel, electricity, and cash. Frustration over rampant unemployment and the rapidly eroding spending power of the country’s currency resulted in strikes and demonstrations that were violently shut down by the army and police. Most people in rural Zimbabwe drink water that is heavily contaminated with human and animal waste and women and girls face additional risks including respiratory diseases caused by cooking indoors. Although devastating in their impact, many of the health risks facing rural Zimbabweans are preventable or can be addressed with simple, low-cost interventions.

One Day’s Wages partnered with Bopoma Villages to implement their Healthy Homes program in 75 homes in rural Zimbabwe. The Healthy Homes Project addresses the impacts of extreme poverty, malnutrition, and illness in rural Zimbabwe through seven practical, proven and sustainable solutions: providing clean water through household water filters, training people in biointensive farming methods and rainwater harvesting, helping women and children avoid exposure to toxic smoke through rocket stoves, building tippy-taps to facilitate hand-washing where there is no running water, and other simple, but powerful interventions. Introducing interventions that address multiple risks simultaneously greatly increases the overall impact on health and capacity.