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."

HIV and Aids-related illnesses have compounded the suffering - leaving many unable to work in fear and isolation. Unemployment is over 80 per cent and those that can find casual work often do so for small amounts of food.

Others search around for vegetables to supplement meagre amounts of maize, getting by on one inadequate meal a day. Because of the lack of food over the last five years many of Zimbabwe's children suffer from chronic malnutrition and an increasing number are too sick to go to school.

Esinah is a grandmother in her 80s, caring for eight Aids orphans. Queuing for maize, beans and oil at a food distribution funded by Tearfund she spoke of the people dying in her community. "There have been many deaths and people are starving," said Esinah. "Without this food we could be dead by now. Only God knows what will happen."

Tearfund actively supports churches in wider relief response and is currently funding, assisting and standing with them as they continue to fight poverty and social injustice.

Mr Grant said that the churches have a biblical mandate to speak out against poverty, as they continue to engage the public square while they can, remaining non-political within civil society.

"To speak out requires real courage and they need our support in prayer," he added. "They need practical support and continued international pressure for change."

Tearfund is currently funding feeding programmes for some 9500 orphans and vulnerable children. Working through churches and church-based agencies, this effort is relieving some of the immediate suffering, the relief agency said, and is providing essential, but very limited, assistance.

"Many more need help," it stressed.

Tearfund is appealing for more donations to sustain its church partner programme and help more children and families in communities devastated by the ongoing crisis in Zimbabwe.