Tinashe, who is 16 months old, waits with her mother in the queue for the Save the Children food distribution. Half the Zimbabwean population is in need of urgent food aid, but resources are insufficient and rations are being reduced. Please help us to save the lives of children like Tinashe. Donate now. 

When they can’t find anything else to eat, some people in Zimbabwe will pick marula seeds, which can be crushed to a powder and made into a tasteless, paste that lacks in vital nutrition but staves off the most severe hunger pangs. Half the Zimbabwean population is in need of food aid and one third of children are chronically malnourished.

Godgave, six, is weighed and measured at one of Save the Children’s Early Childhood Development Centres to ascertain how malnourished he is. He is only as tall as a four-year-old, and weighs just 13kg. We're feeding over 1,000 pre-school children in our Early Childhood Development Centres.

Zineth is six, and weighs just 15kg. This puts her in the ‘red zone’, she needs food aid urgently. She's one of the lucky ones. Thousands of children are facing starvation in Zimbabwe. Zineth is attending a Save the Children Early Childhood Development Centre, where she is fed once a day, and can play with other children. We want to reach more children, and we want to make sure we can continue to feed children like Zineth.

Thabse walks home with her food rations from a Save the Children distribution programme with her daughter Precious. Thabse has been put in Category A, the most vulnerable category needing food aid. She’s been ill since 2007. Her husband died in July 2008, leaving her with their four children. 

We want to reach at least 142,487 people in three districts with food aid. Please help us to reach them.

A child tucks into breakfast at one of Save the Children’s Early Childhood Development Centres in Matabeleland North. This is more often than not the only meal these children will have each day.