Supporting the fight against Covid-19

Zimbabwe joined the rest of the world in instituting efforts to prevent and mitigate against the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government of Zimbabwe has been working closely with development the civil society and the private sector to strengthen preparedness planning through putting in place a raft of measures to deal with the pandemic. Such measures have included the crafting of the Zimbabwe Preparedness and Response Plan and swathe of statutory instruments. However, even though all these raft of measures are indeed plausible and indicative of the government’s desire to deal with the pandemic. The pandemic has brought a number of longstanding structural issues to the fore which has the ability to erode or undermine national capacity to deal with the pandemic. In preparations of a coordinated response to the pandemic, the CFHD instituted consultations within its human rights network compromising of 12 CBOs and CSOs on the dimensions of the problem, challenges being experiences by vulnerable communities, magnitude of these effects, main stakeholders and gaps and the support needs of communities and the key priorities within the framework of the Human Rights Monitoring Project. This has led to the design of an initiative that is aimed at increasing protection, preparedness and response to impacts of COVID-19 at community level. The intervention will be aimed at complementing and supporting existing government response plans and national coordination mechanisms, with due consideration paid to the respect of human rights and humanitarian principles. The implications of the evolution of COVID-19 into a pandemic are a clarion call for a step change in attitudes, mind sets, and behaviours in responding to the national health emergency. The necessary local, national and global actions to save lives, societies and economies must be rapidly scaled-up. Milestones and Lessons Learnt Through a partnership with Action Aid and ARDCZ, CFHD managed to distribute 49000 posters on COVID-19 to 25 districts across the country. CFHD successfully engaged the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) through the Department of Epidemiology and Disease Control. The CFHD facilitated the printing of several guidelines as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The facilitation allowed for the printing of 800 copies of the Volunteer Health Worker Handbook that were used to train community health workers across the country. The trainings Harare, Kadoma and Mutare and CFHD supported the MoHCC with allowances for the trainees and fuel for travel. Frontline workers were also supplied with latex gloves, face shields and surgical masks. The distribution of acquired COVID-19 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was as tabulated below: PPE MATERIAL 20L BUCKETS 500ml ALCOHOL BASED SANITISERS FABRIC MASKS WASHING SOAP FACE SHIELDS MUTARE RDC 20 24 50 100 15 CHIKOMBA RDC 20 24 50 100 15 HWEDZA RDC 20 24 50 100 15 MUREWA RDC 20 24 50 100 15 SANYATI RDC 20 24 - 100 - MBIRE RDC 20 24 50 100 15 MAKONDE RDC 20 24 50 100 - GOROMONZI RDC 20 24 50 100 15 NYAMINYAMI RDC 20 24 50 100 10 MUTOKO RDC 20 24 50 100 15 CHEGUTU RDC 20 24 50 100 15 HARARE METROPOLITAN 20 24 - 100 - TONGOGARA RDC 20 24 50 100 - RUNDE RDC 20 24 50 100 - MUZARABANI RDC 20 24 - 100 - GURUVE RDC 20 24 - 100 - Handover of PPE Material to Mr. Kufa of Chikomba Rural District Council Additional PPE material was received from IOM and distributed as follows: Beneficiary 20L buckets 50L buckets Sanitising stands Masks (boxes of 50) Latex gloves Alcohol based sanitisers Mutare District 20 15 - 15 1000 70 Chikomba District - - - 15 1000 70 MoHCC 85 85 85 Other Awareness Initiatives There were two (2) video skits that were developed with the aid of popular local comedians, Sabhuku Vharazipi and P O Box Reloaded Crew. These were shared on various social media platforms reaching over half a million views in the month of September and they continue to trend. These video skits were on sending information to the citizens on COVID-19 awareness, the importance of wearing masks correctly as well as maintaining social distance. A series of podcast sessions were also conducted under different topics and shared on various social media platfroms. Lydia Chinomona, Thollet Mware and Faith Chidzvondo during a podcast recording