The call for disaster preparedness has continually been echoing from the government of Zimbabwe and the globe at large, with invitations stretching down to the last possible partner for this humanitarian cause. For some, it has just been banter but to the church, it looks like it really hit a soft spot because the response has been massive. 

One such church that has been leading the campaign for disaster preparedness is the Anglican Diocese of Central Zimbabwe, with the motive being to ensure that the conversation about disasters gets to happen before, during and after the crisis.

For an ordinary church, the expectation would be simply to spread the good news about Jesus Christ. However, the Bible says, “Love thy neighbour as yourself”, and so the Anglican Church has stretched beyond sermon preaching to ensuring that lives are preserved by pushing for disaster preparedness among various communities. Interesting to note is, there are several Biblical passages where people experienced disasters, e.g. Noah and the flood, Joseph and the starvation. The Diocese of Central Zimbabwe has therefore partnered with its international church partner, Episcopal Relief and Developemt (ERD) in this movement.

Some disasters have become so common that mentioning them has become a cliche, but they seem to be taking more lives than they are birthing. These include heat waves, droughts, cyclones and veld fires which have all taken the continent by storm.

The church realized the need to set up a team that would be on the ground working towards the conscientization of various communities and ensuring support is given prior to a disaster, during as well as after occurrence.

With the growing call to have religious groups taking part in such disaster management strategies, the Anglican church deemed it fit to train a total of 43 people from all around Africa and eventually selected 12 to join a team of Africa Church Accompaniers.

The Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Central Zimbabwe, Rt Revd Dr Ignatius Makumbe is appreciated for recognising his Programs Coordinator for the Diocese to be part of this African team. During the Ordination of seven Priests at the Anglican Cathedral Bishop Makumbe launched this Disaster preparedness programme where 877 were gathered and activities are continuing to unfold.

This concept was well articulated by the Programmes Coordinator of the Anglican diocese of Central Zimbabwe, Mr Darlington Musekiwa who also happens to have been accorded this opportunity by the Church to join the Church Accompanier’s team for Africa.

“We as the Anglican church have realized that in most cases we react to disasters after occurrence whereas we can actually address the risks we already know so that people can be prepared in advance. We can also assist in damage control in a case of assistance during the disaster as well as helping the victims recover from losses if we are dealing with an aftermath of a disaster. This is the main role for the church accompaniers team that has been put in place for Africa, to serve as servants of the church for a humanitarian cause. We look forward to resilient communities”….said Mr Musekiwa

The church is continuing to identify and mentor volunteers to take forward this initiative; Before, During and After Disaster Preparedness.