Action points based on findings

• Develop a national victim assistance plan and ensure participation of survivors and their representatives in the coordinating body.
• Update disability policies and align them with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
• Ensure sustainability of prosthetic and orthotic services.
• Provide economic inclusion opportunities for survivors and persons with disabilities.

Victim assistance commitments

The Republic of Zimbabwe is responsible for a significant number of landmine and explosive remnants of war (ERW) survivors who are in need. Zimbabwe has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty.

Zimbabwe ratified the CRPD on 23 September 2013.

Casualties Overview

For 2014, the Landmine Monitor identified nine mine/ERW casualties. Three were boys, three were civilian men, and three were deminers. All casualties were caused by antipersonnel landmines. Of the six civilian casualties, five were recorded as the result of tampering with the mines and the other occurred during the herding of cattle. The three deminer casualties all took place during the course of landmine clearance.[1] Zimbabwe Mine Action Centre (ZIMAC) has stated for many years that incidents in remote areas go underreported.[2] Many documented animal casualties due to landmines have also been reported, indicating the extent of contamination and its impact on communities.

Since 1980, 1,602 casualties have been reported by ZIMAC.[3] In a 1998 study of the impact of landmines in Zimbabwe, the number of landmine casualties was estimated at 470, with 70 killed and 400 injured.[4]

Cluster munition casualties

There have been at least three cluster munition casualties reported in Zimbabwe, dating to the period of the 1970s liberation war. In an incident documented by a former Rhodesian soldier in his memoirs, two children were killed and a third injured when they found an unexploded Alpha-type unexploded submunition and threw it against a large rock.[5]

Victim Assistance

Victim assistance since 1999

In 1998, there was a lack of sufficient emergency medical assistance and rehabilitation care for survivors in the Mukumbura region. The local clinics lacked the surgical wards to address traumatic amputations and had no rehabilitation or prosthetic facilities. Surgical and rehabilitation needs could be met at the referral hospital in Mount Darwin or the national hospitals in Harare.[6]

Prosthetic services in 1998 were available from a government-approved facility in Bulawayo. At the time, prosthetic legs cost Z$8,000 (~US$430) and prosthetic arms Z$15,000 (~US$800). Survivors were expected to cover 15% of the cost of the limbs, which made them prohibitively expensive for many.[7]

Community-based rehabilitation (CBR), was first introduced in Zimbabwe in 1982, and the country  was for many years hailed as an international model. With the support of the ICRC, Zimbabwe established rehabilitation villages and provided rehabilitation services to beneficiaries. With the economic collapse in Zimbabwe in the early 2000s, these services were mostly discontinued except in limited areas where Jairos Jiri, a national NGO, continued to provide CBR with support from external donors.[8]

The Local Rehabilitation Workshop (LOREWO) was founded in 1999 to meet the needs of persons with disabilities for wheelchairs. Based near the Mpilo referral hospital in Bulawayo, LOREWO transitioned from international management to national management in 2001 and has produced chairs and mobility devices with support from the governments of Norway and the United States. In 2015, support from the Norwegian government will conclude and LOREWO will be expected to support itself independently through sales of assistive devices.[9]

Disability issues are coordinated by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, while emergency assistance is led by the Victim Friendly Unit. Responsibility for surveying survivors needs and other assistance to mine/ERW survivors is centralized through ZIMAC,  the national mine action center.[10]

The ICRC Special Fund for the Disabled (SFD) provided support to the Parirenyatwa group of hospitals until 2013 when the SFD ended that support as part of an expected phase out, finding that the hospitals had reached a satisfactory level of autonomy.[11] ICRC SFD assistance to the Bulawayo Rehabilitation Center had been phased out by the end of 2012, as planned.[12]

Victim assistance in 2014

Assessing victim assistance needs

The HALO Trust, in the course of its survey of suspected hazardous areas in its working area, identified 134 landmine survivors, including 16 who had been injured in 2013 and 2014.[13]

In 2013, the Ministry of Health and Child Care, with financial and technical support from UNICEF, conducted a nationwide household survey to assess the living conditions of persons with disabilities and develop recommendations to address their needs. The survey, whose results were published in 2015, compared known households with one or more persons living in them to households that were expected to have no persons with disability living in them as a control group. Based upon the survey, the Government of Zimbabwe estimates the prevalence of disability, as defined by the report, at 7% of the population.[14]

These findings have been challenged by the disability-rights community, which pointed to the WHO’s estimated global prevalence for disability of 15% and expressed concern that the 7% figure would be used to limit resources allocated to programming for persons with disabilities.[15]

Victim assistance coordination[16]

N/A = not applicable

Participation and inclusion in victim assistance

In the absence of a coordinating mechanism for victim assistance or a formal plan for victim assistance activities, survivors are unable to participate in the formulation of victim assistance strategies. There is a strong community of disability-rights actors in Zimbabwe including disabled persons’ organizations and service providers who could contribute to a coordinating mechanism. Some of the organizations expressed concern that they were not consulted in the development of the Ministry of Health and Child Care’s survey of needs for persons with disabilities in 2013.[17] Survivors and persons with disabilities are employed by LOREWO and Jairos Jiri in the manufacture of wheelchairs and assistive devices.[18]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[19]

Emergency and continuing medical care

Emergency medical and surgical services are available at the national referral hospitals. In case of an incident, HALO sends its staff to the Karanda Mission Hospital, a private facility about two-hours’ drive from the minefields.[20] Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA) used the Mutare Provincial Hospital, one of the national referral hospitals, for this purpose.[21]

Physical rehabilitation including prosthetics

Since the end of support by the ICRC SFD in 2013, Zimbabwe’s national rehabilitation centers have been unable to procure the supplies necessary for the manufacture of assistive devices.[22] The centers still provide rehabilitation services;[23] Leonard Cheshire Disability Zimbabwe Trust offers physical rehabilitation for children with disabilities;[24] and LOREWO plans to introduce rehabilitation and occupational therapy services.[25]

Three facilities, two commercial firms, and a national NGO produce prosthetic and orthotic devices. The Jairos Jiri Prosthetic Workshop, on the outskirts of Harare, sells wheelchairs and manufactures customized orthotic and prosthetic devices.[26] Otto Bock runs the commercial firm in Harare and Cassim’s Prosthetics, the other commercial prosthetic firm in Zimbabwe, is in Bulawayo. Cassim’s produces arm and leg prosthetics and also maintains a remote capability, providing prosthetic devices to customers throughout the country.[27] In 2014, HALO identified several survivors in need of prosthetics and contracted with Cassim’s to measure, build, fit, and deliver prosthetic limbs.[28]

In addition to Jairos Jiri, LOREWO imports and manufactures wheelchairs. Motivation UK provides wheelchairs for LOREWO to distribute for little or no cost; manufactured chairs are sold at cost.[29]

Mercy Corps had run a large program focused on facilitating support for children with disabilities, but the project came to an end in early 2015.[30]

Economic inclusion

With only 15% of the population engaged in formal employment, few opportunities for meaningful work exist in Zimbabwe. LOREWO and the Jairos Jiri Prosthetic Workshop operate as sheltered workshops for persons with disabilities. The Leonard Cheshire Disability Zimbabwe Trust operates an access to livelihoods program for persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities receive vocational training and are then encouraged to form manufacturing groups to produce products that are likely to produce a profit in the marketplace.[31]

Psychological support and social inclusion

Few, if any, psychological services are available for survivors and persons with disabilities in Zimbabwe.[32] Disabled Women’s Support Organization (DWSO) provided peer counseling to persons who had recently suffered disabling injuries through hospital visits. Support for these activities has discontinued, although the capacity remains.[33]

Educational opportunities for persons with disabilities were constrained after the government suspended subsidies for children with disabilities under the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM), which had provided $600 per student per year.[34]

Laws and Policies

Zimbabwe has several national policies, including the Disabled Persons Act, the War Victims Compensation Act, the Social Welfare Assistance Act, and the State Service (Disabled Benefits) Act, related to victim assistance and disability. The Disabled Persons Act was hailed as a major milestone when it was passed in 1992, but has since been superseded in international policy by the CRPD. Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution recognizes the rights of persons with disabilities and requires the government to provide mechanisms for the realization of those rights with an the problematic caveat action is contingent upon available resources.[35]

Discrimination by educational institutions toward children with disabilities and the lack of government resources devoted to training and education severely hampered the ability of persons with disabilities to compete for already scarce jobs.[36]

Legislation prohibited discrimination against persons with disabilities but was not widely known or implemented by government institutions, and discrimination remained prevalent. The law stipulated that government buildings be accessible to persons with disabilities, but implementation was slow.[37]

Zimbabwe ratified the CRPD in September 2013, but has yet to domesticate the law and revise existing legislation in accordance with the convention.[38]