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The Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) has embarked on a national climate change awareness program to conscientise people to preserve the environment from harmful human activities such as air pollution, land pollution, deforestation and sand poaching.
The church’s campaign comes amid the El Nino induced drought, which has left millions of people vulnerable to starvation in the Southern African region.
Addressing journalists on the sidelines of the ZCC climate change interface in Harare last week Wednesday, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Harare, Dr. Farai Mutamiri, said the church was working with the government to mitigate climate change.
“We work hand in glove with the government, because as religious organizations and faith leaders, we will compliment government efforts on how we can mitigate climate change and its effects on human beings,” said Dr Mutamiri.
He also said the church is in the process of ushering in programs that are centered on assisting people most affected by the El Nino weather phenomenon.
“As for El Nino that we faced as a region, we are trying to come up with programs that will mitigate the drought,” he said.
Methodist Development and Relief Agency (MEDRA) program’s manager, Tariro Washaya, who was also part of stakeholders explained how rural communities had benefited from his organization in mitigating climate change.
“We are supporting families to have sustainable livelihoods in rural areas like gardening, as they would be able to utilize the gardens as their livelihoods and to remove them from trying to do the convection agriculture, which is not really sustainable. Through gardens again, we are supporting them with fencing material, such that they will stop cutting down trees.
“We have activities related to gullies reclamation and also planting of trees. We have distributed 100 gumtrees in Gokwe South and 100 in Buhera for them to have woodlots,” said Ms Washaya.
Buhera Ward 8 Village Head, Joshua Madzivanyika, who was a participant during the interface, explained the benefits that villagers had enjoyed from the church’s programs in mitigating climate change.
Buhera Ward 8 Village Head, Joshua Madzivanyika
“We were coming across these issues of climate change, but we know how bad it is to our environment, but we are happy the church gave us the knowledge that we should not use tree branches to cover our gardens, but the fence to tackle deforestation,” explained Madzivanyika.
The ZCC climate change interface in conjunction with MEDRA, a subsidiary of Methodist, was initiated in order to raise awareness on climate change and proffer solutions to help mitigate its effects. It was held under the brand name Act Alliance.
