Knorr-Bremse Global Care is providing support for hospitals in Zimbabwe in their fight against cholera.

Zimbabwe is currently in crisis for a number of reasons: The country is suffering from an inflation rate that reached 230 million per cent at the end of January; starvation is rife – and worsening; the country has extremely high rates of HIV infection; and towards the end of 2009 a cholera epidemic broke out.

According to the World Health Organization the situation in Zimbabwe is out of control. 2,773 people are reported to have died of cholera since August of last year and a further 48,600 are estimated to be infected with the disease. However at the end of January the Bishop of Chinhoyi in Zimbabwe, Dieter B. Scholz SJ, provided an even gloomier assessment of the local situation: "I would double those figures. As the state hospitals have closed, many people are dying at home with their deaths not being officially registered."

In a bid to help the cholera victims in Zimbabwe, Knorr-Bremse Global Care has donated an emergency package of medical aid worth EUR 70,000 to church hospitals in Chinhoyi Diocese. Following the closure of all the state-run hospitals, these have to provide services for the entire region. It is estimated that the aid, administered directly from South Africa and not via the Zimbabwean government, reached some 30,000 to 40,000 people.