Zambia
In Zambia, Oxfam's focus is on HIV and AIDS, sustainable livelihoods, and helping people cope with drought.
Tackling HIV and AIDS
Some 920,000 Zambians are living with HIV and AIDS.
- 16.5 per cent of the population is infected with the virus
- Average life expectancy is just 38
Most people who die from HIV and AIDS are cut down in the prime of their lives. They leave behind orphans and single-parent households facing an uphill struggle to survive.
How Oxfam is helping
We help to ensure that schools have the necessary resources to include teaching about HIV and AIDS on the curriculum. We also work with special District AIDS Task Forces to provide special treatment and care services to those affected.
Oxfam's other work in Zambia
- Providing training to rural farmers to help them increase the amounts they can grow
- Strengthening communities’ ability to cope with disasters such as drought
- Supplying clean water and carrying out public health and hygiene training in rural communities
Southern Africa Food Crisis
Both in 2001-3 and in 2005-6, millions of people across southern Africa faced acute food shortages.
How Oxfam responded
In both instances we expanded our work in the region – covering Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe – to reach more people affected by the crisis.
A recurrent problem
Food crises in southern Africa are not unpredictable – drought comes in cycles. However, even in a year of good rains millions of poor farmers simply cannot produce a decent harvest because they can't afford seeds and fertilisers.
Without long-term investment in people's livelihoods, millions of people will continue to be vulnerable to drought. Oxfam works to help improve the food security of communities across the region to bring an end to this cyclical crisis.
Learn more
Share this page
