Christian Aid's International Director Paul Valentin sends us a short, informal report from the road as he visits Zimbabwe. Paul shares a glimpse of how, thanks to your support, our partners are already helping communities prepare for the planting season, providing seeds and training in agricultural techniques that, when applied, lead to harvests multiplying to often four or five times in quantity. Through our Zimbabwe Appeal, Christian Aid aims to raise as much as possible to reach more people by the October rains. This way we can ensure farmers can plant in time by providing seeds and training in low cost and easily applied techniques pioneered by our local partners. This year seven million people depended on food aid to survive. Early predictions suggest that next year's figures will be similar. Our appeal aims to free Zimbabweans from food-aid dependency. William Anderson, Christian Aid's Zimbabwe country manager based in Harare, suggests that for thousands of families, this and future years could be different if we act in time, this time around. Instead of the fear of disease, hunger and the dependency on food aid, families can have the power to rebuild their own lives in a safer and freer environment, to escape the vicious cycle of hunger and food aid dependency, and above all make a profit to improve their lives for good.
