By Asha Emmerson | CEO, Country Director
Well, 2021 came in with a bang with the new South African coronavirus mutation having hit Zimbabwe and tripling our infection rates and losses in just a couple of weeks, plus Cyclone Chalane.
As I write this, so many around us in our community are sick or have passed on due to the sudden severity of COVID19 spread. Each of us on the Oasis Zimbabwe team have experienced loss of at least one dear friend or relative over the past week. Severe floods are occurring across Zimbabwe following Cyclone Chalane and due to Tropical Cyclone Eloise currently forming and due to possibly make land fall in Mozambique and Zimbabwe this week. Sexual and gender based violence is up by 200% from this time last year, and with the likelihood of increased displacements as well as the critical strains of strengthened lockdown measures, this is likely to increase further.
We feel the strain, and we feel deep pain as Oasis team and as community. We are tired and we feel stretched, but we stand shoulder to shoulder (metaphorically, of course). As we stand, we breath and know that the hardest of seasons pass, and we can honestly say what a time this is to be grateful for life and health and to cherish each moment with the precious ones we get to do life with!
Shoulder to shoulder we have encouraged each other, cheered each other on, supported 165 households with emergency food and other support over our lockdowns. We have addressed increasing violence cases in and as community, including child marriage and exploitation cases that are increasing due to economic pressures, child violence and neglect cases and ongoing domestic violence cases with severe threats of harm. SWATT members within our toughest communities have created change in what was an increasingly hazardous environment around community boreholes in our hubs, where women and young girls queue for hours, even in lockdown, to get water for their households. The water queues, which began in the dark hours of morning and lasted late into the night, were becoming points of exploitation for many women and young girls. Predators were approaching women offering already gathered water for sex. Seeing this occurring as they waited to gather water for their own homes, SWATT TEAM members went to our local council and called for the local government officials to take action regarding the issue. Their leading intervention has resulted in greater organization, awareness and safety around water collection, and curfews restricting borehole access to daylight hours that protect the women and young girls gathering for water.
Bravely, and shoulder to shoulder, we are continuing to value each life, to seize each opportunity, to celebrate each step forward, to be grateful for each day you stand with us supporting our ability to continue.
Globally and socially distanced, but bravely step by step, action by action, and shoulder to shoulder, we keep on together in gratitude and hope.
(PS. photo’s are from prior to lockdown, showing the faces of hope and togetherness that we will continue to look forward to seeing, unmasked, again)
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