ACCESS4ALL Group

On 15 March 2019, a devastating tropical cyclone Idai ravaged my community in Chimanimani and other surround district in Zimbabwe. My community experienced floods and sustained heavy rains. Despite having had other cyclone prior, Cyclone Idai was the worst in known history of the community and it resulted in the loss of over 250 lives, displaced more than 500 households, destroyed bridges and more than 100 kilometers of tarred roads. Further, livestock was lost, landslides, field degradation and also disrupted natural source of water like wells and falls. This climate impact has contributed to loss of livelihoods for the agro based community, loss of employment, water conflicts, loss of biodiversity, and also exposed the communities for food insecurity as productive fields were degraded. Social the community suffered an increased uptake of substance and drug abuse among young people and adults to cope with the trauma. Also post-traumatic stress disorder is also an evident challenge for many who lost their relatives. The cyclone disrupted the way of living and affected the community’s social fabric. To improve resilience and also rebuild the community, government and private stakeholders managed to establish and effective community radio as a communication tool to enhance preparedness and future evacuations. Agroecology has also been a tool that has been introduced to rehabilitate fields and also restore the environment. Adding on, psychosocial initiatives are ongoing to restore social cohesion. Activation of the district civil protection unity was also established in case of future climate induced disasters.  Most importantly climate education has also been introduced to raise continuous awareness and also reduce vulnerability. Villages now have trained disaster risk reduction committees and also the district has a working DRR plan reviewed yearly. Climate induced tropical cyclones are ever increasing in my community and we remain on high alert and continuously improving our resilience.