SIR - While many people are counting down the days to the Christmas festival, which unfortunately has, for many, lost its original meaning, I wanted to share the latest statistics from a country not a million miles away and ask people to consider what kind of Christmas they are going to have.

Survival there is very much on their minds and maybe we could do something about it, i.e. lobby your MP.

In Zimbabwe life expectancy is 30 years; 1.4 million need food aid; adult HIV prevalence is 20 per cent; there are 3,000 Aids deaths each week; 500,000 were left homeless last year; 200,000 lost livelihoods. Inflation is above 1,200 per cent and there are shortages of basic goods.

Mary Byrne, Clover Street, Little Horton, Bradford