In most, if not all African countries the greater part of the population lives in the rural areas in which live is a harder as compared to the urban areas. This is primarily because rural areas are less developed which translates to multiple challenges for people living there. According to the World Bank, 67 % of Zimbabweans live in the rural areas. Most households in rural areas sustain themselves through subsistence and small scale commercial agricultural activities. This makes agricultural issues very important when trying to address challenges being faced by people living in rural areas.
Other challenges they face include unavailability of safe drinking water and poor sanitation, food shortages, limited or no access to education, to health facilities, to transport and to information. Unemployment and lack of income generating projects are other common challenges that are being faced by people living in the rural areas. These challenges have often left them at a place where they find it difficult to sustain themselves without having to depend on their relatives living in urban areas.
Usually each rural community has their unique set of challenges that might be different from the next community. It is therefore very imperative that whoever is willing to help take their time to understand the communities they want to help and tailor make the assistance they want to render if their interventions are to have maximum effectiveness. In most rural areas it very difficult to access even the most basic of needs.
To begin with, education and health facilities are still few and far between and as a result most people walk tens of kilometers to access the nearest clinic or school. As if that is not enough in most cases the road and communication networks are so poor that life becomes unbearable particularly for the sick and school children. Infant mortality rate is also relatively high as clinics with maternity wards are still few in most of the rural areas and these few clinics are finding it difficult to cope with the high demand of their maternity services. Often expecting mothers have been forced to deliver babies at home with the assistance of village midwifes or other relatives which can be fatal in the event of complications in the process. A plethora of these and other challenges bedevil people living in the rural areas every minute this is why the Friendly Society has a soft spot for them.
