Churches are fighting poverty, hunger and HIV among Zimbabwe's decimated communities and helping to meet the basic day to day needs, says UK Christian relief agency Tearfund.
It warned that there is little food due to drought and poor harvests, and that the collapse of civil infrastructure has meant basic services are no longer available to the majority of Zimbabweans.
Peter Grant, Tearfund's International Director, said the situation is desperate with children now suffering from very high levels of chronic malnutrition.
"People are dying. It's the very young, the very old, and those with Aids who are the most vulnerable," he said. "We heard recently of a church leader who had to bury a grandmother and a baby from the same family over the same weekend. As the year goes on with the continuing food shortages, we can expect the situation to get worse, and more people to die."
With inflation exceeding 4500% - some reports put the figure nearer 8000% - currency no longer buys food and medical care. Even if people could afford to go to hospital, there are no longer medical supplies to treat them. The wages of hospital staff do not even cover the bus fare to work, Tearfund warned.
The crisis has engulfed the cities, where food distributions were rarely seen previously. Middle income school teachers told Tearfund that they cannot even afford to buy sugar.
Pastor Promise Manceda leads a church in Bulawayo and sees the stark reality. "If the middle classes consider themselves poor, then the most marginalised people in society are hit so much harder," says Promise. "We have to help them - and it is only with God's strength that we are still able to."
