The partner, known as ZimPro, aims to reduce the vulnerability of 15,000 urban poor in Harareto the cholera outbreak through the promotion of public health education, and water and sanitation activities.

'Around thirty people are dying every day from cholera in Zimbabwe,' says William Anderson, Christian Aid's country manager in Harare.

'Although this is quite a small number compared to the HIV mortality rate there is still a higher than acceptable fatality rate of cholera victims.'

According to the World Health organisation more than 12,000 cases have been reported and 565 people have died.

In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city, the Dabane Trust, a Christian Aidpartner which specialises in drought recovery programmes, is providing an emergency response in both the city and in the outlying rural areas.

'The sewage system has just completely broken down,' says Stephen Hussey, the programme coordinator for Dabane

The grant of more than £50,000 will provide 118 families and three primary schools with seeds and conservation farming techniques for a year. Midlands province is one of the worst affected regions of Zimbabwe; UN assessments show that it is on the brink of a severe food crisis.

'The timing is key,' says William Anderson, Christian Aid's country manager in Zimbabwe. 'We are entering the planting season for the next harvest and unless we seize this window of opportunity

Staff from the Christian Alliance, the Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe (SCMZ) and the Ecumenical Support Services were arrested in Harare on Monday and appeared in court on Friday - only days after a decision by the government to suspend food aid distribution by humanitarian agencies, which provoked strong condemnation within Zimbabwe as well as internationally.

'This kind of intimidation is completely

Concern over the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe: message from the heads of Christian denominations in Zimbabwe

As the shepherds of the people, we, Church leaders of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ), the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference (ZCBC) and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), express our deep concern over the deteriorating political, security, economic

The men, all members of Christian Aid's partner organisation, the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance (ZCA), were arrested at a church service attended by more than 500 people.

The service marked the launch of a local branch of the ZCA, a national network of Christian leaders working to promote democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe.

'This kind of intimidation is completely unacceptable,' said Christian Aid's Africa policy manager, Babatunde Olugboji.

House and market stall demolitions have left 700,000 people homeless or without jobs.

Two trucks laden with maize, beans and

Abstract

High-profile relief operations have become the lifeblood of the international aid industry. On the back of mass appeals - fronted by wide-eyed, starving children - aid agencies rally attention and gather funds and roll in food-filled trucks to where the hungry people wait. Again and again we feel that we have made a difference, that the rich world has fulfilled its obligation to the poor, and that the rescue missions have been accomplished. But, in reality, no humanitarian emergency is ever quite so simple in its machinations or its solutions. This paper