ZIMBABWE - New Funding from Dutch Government for IOM's Humanitarian Programmes in Zimbabwe

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