Emergency Humanitarian Response to the El Nino in Zimbabwe

 In the face of the El Nino induced drought in Sub Saharan Africa,  communities have to raise their vigilance against WASH related diseases. Action Contra la Faim has invited Africa AHEAD to partner once again to use the CHC approach to mitigate against emergencies, so as to avoid a cholera outbreak such as the one which crippled Zimbabwe in 2008. In 2012 Zim AHEAD had one of the most successful programmes in two districts in Zimbabwe in Gutu and Mberengwa Districts. This reached higher levels of community buy in that ever before with almost universal coverage of households in a community health club.

In 2016, many of the old CHCs and School Health Clubs be refreshed to mitigate against threats. Disease surveillance will be upped through networking with Village Health Workers, Environmental Health Technicians and Nurses. In the next year, our staff will train and monitor 90 CHCs and blanket coverage for WASH resilience building in the face of a potential threat. Water points and Water Point User Committees will be rehabilitated and refreshed respectively. Village Pump Minders will be refreshed. Household Water Treatment at Point of Use will be promoted. Our partner ACF will work on Nutrition.

This is a two year programme, which will provide communities with protection against not only cholera but also long term coping mechanisms for all emergencies through the co-ordination in the community. This initiative, with a budget of US$177,000  is funded by OFDA, USAID.

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