Please help provide a safe, healthy family home

My name is Lauren, I live with my husband Ray and two children ages 8 and almost 2 in Zimbabwe in Sanyatwe Nyanga.

We live in a cottage on my mother’s property where we luckily don’t have to pay rent, my mom is 61 years old and is suffering from an old injury of her arm, she has her own business but cannot make ends meet with us being here too.

Unfortunately, my husband and I are in an extremely bad financial situation, as work is part time and not as frequent as we would like, to the point where we are not able to save enough money to get the roof fixed ourselves, as buying food and nappies is top priority. In a country where the inflation rate is 257% it’s hard to do anything but just get by and most transactions are now carried out in US, as it’s a more stable currency.

Our cottage has a thatched roof, in keeping with the planning laws of the estate. We requested permission to change the roofing material to something more affordable but were denied. The thatch is old and very poorly laid. It’s not thick enough – it’s only 5cms in most places and should be 30cm, so when it rains it pours inside from openings in the thatch and along the thatching twine. We have to move things around and place buckets and pots on the floor to catch the water. Rains in Zimbabwe last for around 3 months and are heavy and usually twice a day. Last rainy season, our daughter woke up in a completely wet bed on the one side, we managed to find a dry spot for our son’s camp cot . Everything was damp and cold and we had mould growing all over our cottage, which is such a health hazard for our children.

We’ve gone to various thatchers in the area and have received quotes, the most reasonable one is US2979.50. That would take us years to save and the longer we leave it the more prices go up.

The season for the thatching grass is almost ending so we need to buy these materials as soon as we can. To get this fixed would be such a blessing and huge relief to us all knowing our children will be dry and safe. I hope and pray things will get better for us and we will be in a better situation as a family.

We would be extremely grateful for any help that we could get to have this done as rainy season is approaching and the window for this is small. Thank you so much in advance.