ZIRP brings joy and dignity to a widow in Gutu
The Zimbabwe Idai Recovery Project (ZIRP) is being implemented in 5 wards [10, 12, 13, 15 and 36] of Gutu district, the worst hit area when Cyclone Idai ravaged the country in March 2019 resulting in practice of open defecation by most of the affected households. Among the latrines which collapsed due to Cyclone Idai, Gogo Chamisa’s latrine was also devastated by the Cyclone.
Paridzirai Chamisa [86 years] is a widow was living alone after her only son and child left her alone at home 5 years ago. When she received the good news that she had been selected for latrine construction, Gogo Chamisa made efforts to mobilize local available materials as beneficiaries are expected to provide the river sand, pit sand, concrete stones, bricks and also do latrine pit excavation. Gogo Chamisa’s age was not a limiting factor in getting all the required community contribution in place. With the little money she had, she paid for the pit excavation, river sand and bricks for the construction of her latrine. One of the community members assisted her in ferrying the bricks to the latrine site. In order to get water to facilitate construction she hired out her wheelbarrow to her neighbor so that she gets water in return.
Subsequent to the training of builders, the project assigned one of the builders trained under ZIRP to undertake construction of the toilet at Chamisa’s home since she had gathered the required materials. Through coordination with key stakeholders, local EHT monitored the construction process in order to maintain the required construction standards.
Picture above: Paridzirai Chamisa with the UNICEF WASH officer and DWSSC member