Buhera district

Buhera is the second poorest district in Zimbabwe. There is very little employment in the area, the chief occupation being subsistence farming. There is no unemployment benefit, and no old age pension or disability pension. Buhera is a dry under resourced district with a population of 250,000.  The area is totally made up of what is called communal land (i.e. there is no title to land, the chief grants one land use as part of his tribe). 

The landscape is hilly savanna/thornbush, 60% low lying and malarious.  Scattered throughout this landscape are small-holdings consisting of two or three fields where the farmer (usually a woman) grows maize or sorghum, as well as a variety of vegetables (rainfall permitting).  However recently this has become more and more difficult as Buhera is a dry low lying area, with relatively poor soil, and the rains have failed for several years in a row, and when they have come they have been too late.  Food shortages are widespread, aggravated by the fact that food to buy commercially is in short supply and if available is unlikely to be at a price the local Buhera person can afford.

Many of the men work in the larger towns of Zimbabwe, returning home only for holidays, and bringing in some income for their families this way, but also in many cases bringing diseases like TB and HIV to the district.  HIV+ prevalence rate in this area is estimated to be 30% in younger generations (from sentinel studies in well pregnant women), and the number of orphan-headed or granny-headed families is growing rapidly due to the AIDS epidemic.  In turn this means that children are less likely to attend school and the cycle of poverty and disease continues.