The Sunday News
Rumbidzai Mbewe, Sunday News Correspondent
Villagers of Lupote community in Hwange have expressed dissatisfaction with the method that the Social Welfare Department uses in selecting beneficiaries for food aid in the area.
With the help of Zimbabwe Christian Alliance, a position paper is being developed by the Lupote ward lobby committee that will be presented to the Social Welfare Department. The villagers noted that the food aid scheme was benefiting a few people in the community. The community complained that a considerable number of old age villagers were not benefiting from the scheme.
“We feel the Social Welfare Department is not being fair to the villagers of Lupote. We all know there is hunger in this area but they are selecting a few people to benefit. They need to tell us how they select the people they are giving food,” said a villager.
They also claimed that the cut off age for beneficiaries was discriminatory considering that many people in the areas were starving and in need of food aid to sustain their families.
“The cut off age is not reasonable because there are a lot of people who can benefit from this aid. The cut off age is discriminatory because there are elderly people who are above 65, some cannot fend for themselves, are living in poverty but they have been sidelined from benefiting,” said one of the villagers.
Mr Nqobizitha Donga, who is the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance programmes officer, said two representatives of the villagers engaged the Social Welfare Department on the issue and were told to go back to their communities to compile a list of names of villagers who are not benefiting from the scheme.
“The list is still being compiled and will be taken to the social welfare offices together with the position paper. We hope that this issue will be solved amicable and everyone benefits from the programme,” he said.
