New funding of US$1.5 million from the
Dutch government will help support IOM's humanitarian activities in Zimbabwe
for a year.
In particular, funds will focus on continued
assistance to mobile and vulnerable populations such as the provision of
emergency food and shelter assistance, responding to new displacement,
sustaining livelihood support, and facilitating early recovery. The funds
will also support mobile clinics providing free medical services and access
to essential drugs in urban and peri-urban settlements as well as the rehabilitation
of water and sanitation infrastructure in a country badly hit by cholera
last year.
The new funding will, in addition, fund
activities carried out at two Reception and Support Centres on the Zimbabwean
borders with South Africa (Beitbridge) and Botswana (Plumtree), where IOM
offers returned migrants with basic health care and referrals, information
on safe migration and the risks of HIV/AIDS as well as meals and transportation
assistance to final destinations home.
More than 314,000 Zimbabweans were assisted
at the Beitbridge centre between 2006 and 2009 while more than 57,000 migrants
returned from Botswana were assisted at the Plumtree reception centre between
June 2008 and June 2009.
The change in South African government
policy allowing for visa-free entry into the country resulting in an end
to forced returns has meant the focus on assistance at Beitbridge has shifted
to information-dissemination, developing options for the sustainable voluntary
return of vulnerable migrants from South Africa and to assisting unaccompanied
minors.
"This new funding from the Dutch
government will go a long way to improving the quality of life for many
people in need of assistance," says IOM Chief of Mission in Zimbabwe,
Marcelo Pisani. "It builds on a long-standing partnership between
Netherlands and IOM in Zimbabwe that has already helped many Zimbabweans."
For additional information please contact,
Zuzana Jankechova, IOM Zimbabwe, Tel: +263 4 335048, Email: zjankechova@iom.int