A humanitarian aid worker, Reverend Alan Clarredge (78), founder of the Rivers of Living Water Charity revealed that he had to go into hibernation at the height of last months’ riots which spread across the country.
Reverend Clarredge was working in Matabeleland and Bulawayo distributing aid and installing water purification systems. In an interview with UK-based publication, The Bournemouth Echo, the cleric said:
We were told not to go on the streets, not to go anywhere. I have to admit that when I got back to Bulawayo, I had to avoid the problems.
The shops were shut, I couldn’t get to many of the hospitals I wanted to, because of no transport and fuel.
But I was able to go to another major hospital in Bulawayo district, I was able to repair their water supply, for about 2,000 patients.
I’ve seen trouble there before, but never on this scale. I saw lots of shops that had been burned, now boarded up.
For safety, I tried to keep to the villages, out of the city centre.
I was watching all the time for trouble.
A very small basket of shopping that would cost £5 here, was 45 US dollars out there.
There were no banks open, no cashpoints working. I had to carry everything I would use.
It was a year ago since I’d been out, but the country seems to have gone downhill considerably.
They are harder up now then they have ever been, it is just a pity.
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