In Spring 2021, IIRR, Terre Des Hommes Italy, Childline, and the EU ECHO’s Pre-educate program in Zimbabwe reached 704 people, more than half of whom were women. Almost 600 community members (teachers, learners, and community members) from 40 schools learned about the basic DRR terms, understood and produced community social and resource maps, identified hazards, and learned prioritization and characterization, vulnerability and capacity assessment, and produced DRR activity plans.
Participants of the DRR rollout training program identified key areas of hazard as a part of a multi-hazard assessment exercise. The most common hazards identified included COVID-19, malaria, drought, fire, strong winds, cyclones, floods, earth tremors, child abuse, child marriages, and gender-based violence. The training also brought about awareness campaigns. Furthermore, it was highlighted during the DRR program that there is a need to support DRR in school activities as this will help their children to be aware and be prepared for potential disasters at their schools and communities.
With this in mind, during the second quarter of 2021, a total of 32 schools formed School DRR Clubs which will enable learners to participate and be active in disaster preparedness. The planned DRR Clubs activities include the following:
- Awareness campaigns on DRR at schools and communities.
- Awareness-raising through poems, songs, and dramas about DRR
- Identifying hazards in the school area and their communities
- Cleaning of the schoolyard, removing scattered rocks in the schoolyard, and maintaining pathways.
- Mobilization of the technical support from responsible authorities
- Community mobilization on the need for unity of purpose against disasters
- Planting trees around the schools
- Establishing school nutritional gardens