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How an Apostolic women’s group helped Zimbabwe counter vaccine hesitancy

Published

2 years ago

February 14, 2023

BY ELIA NTALI

When the first consignment of COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Zimbabwe in early 2021, rumours and misconceptions around their development swirled. Vaccine hesitancy rates rose dangerously.

The government activated awareness campaigns on all media platforms to encourage citizens to get inoculated against the pandemic virus.

But particularly in Zimbabwe’s Apostolic religious community, uptake promised to be slow.

Some 37% of Zimbabweans belong to the Apostolic church, a Christian sect that traditionally shies away from allopathic medical intervention, owing to a belief that illness has a spiritual dimension, and that healing is a function of faith. Amid an outbreak of infectious disease, that’s a dangerous position to preach.

“Personally, I had fears, because growing up, we were of the belief that taking vaccines was getting the biblical mark of the beast. I am happy that our church leaders who had not been tolerating immunisation are now encouraging us to take our children to clinics.”

Rumbidzai Shayanewako, 32, mother of fourEnter the Apostolic Women Empowerment Trust (AWET), partnered with UNICEF, who have conducted awareness campaigns that have created demand for the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines and child immunisation.

AWET’s head of programmes, Hope Dunira, says the organisation engaged members of the apostolic communities through training that was centred on traditional and church leaders.

“We embarked on a training programme that targeted traditional and religious leaders. The training was to educate the leaders to encourage their church members from different churches to access health services such as routine immunisation and the COVID-19 vaccine. This workshop assisted in getting buy-in and support from vital church leaders at national level.

AWET trained 52 District Focal Persons (DFPs) on all issues of COVID-19, in order for them to train behaviour-change facilitators on vaccine uptake, impacts of COVID-19, where to access vaccines, and how to prevent it. The DFPs were also responsible for collecting crucial community feedback and acting upon it. This helped build trust between AWET and the apostolic communities. The DFPs linked apostolic members to the local clinics so that arrangements are done to vaccinate members in confidence.

“We also trained more than 2,000 Behaviour Change Facilitators (BCFs) from the Apostolic communities responsible for awareness-raising campaigns on COVID-19, and promoting the uptake of essential services – inclusive of vaccines – from 52 districts, and eight provinces in the country. These BCFs have leverage in penetrating the church as they are part of the church themselves. Hence, they do not face resistance,” said Dunira.

Rumbidzai Shayanewako, 32, a mother of four and a member of one of the ultraconservative apostolic churches, said she gained confidence after interventions from healthcare workers and non-governmental organisations.

“Members from Apostolic churches are attributing the lower death rate and the higher recovery rate to vaccination. Therefore the perception has positively changed for both child immunisation and COVID-19,”

Reverend Mathias Tsine, Federation of Indigenous Churches in Zimbabwe

“Personally, I had fears, because growing up, we were of the belief that taking vaccines was getting the biblical mark of the Beast. I am happy that our church leaders who had not been tolerating immunisation are now encouraging us to take our children to clinics. This was changed by the education we got from various awareness campaigns,” said Shayanewako.

Reverend Mathias Tsine from the Federation of Indigenous Churches in Zimbabwe (FICZ), an ecumenical board responsible for regulating the affairs of indigenous churches, believes perceptions have changed on both routine immunisation and Covid-19.

“The government COVID-19 vaccination roll-out failed to get buy-in from churches across the board, not only Apostolic churches. This was as a result of the programme being sabotaged with biblical references pointing at the mark of the Beast – this was a pulpit message. Furthermore, there was widespread rhetoric and propaganda that the programme was meant to eliminate the surging global population, but particularly Africans.

“It is quite pleasing that we managed to educate our religious constituency on the importance of adhering to the government call, and a lot responded willingly, given that the roll-out wasn’t compulsory. Previously vaccinations were associated with myopic views and speculations as was witnessed with COVID-19 – although the eventual results proved critics wrong. Members from Apostolic churches are attributing the lower death rate and the higher recovery rate to vaccination. Therefore the perception has positively changed for both child immunisation and COVID-19,” said Tsine.

He added: “Our outreach programs emphasised adherence and as such, the uptake has increased tremendously with some churches migrating from the traditional norms of not accepting medications for themselves and their children. It is through this understanding that churches are experiencing a reduction in mortality rate and congregants celebrated God’s hand upon the end of lockdowns after having lost a few to the pandemic as compared to other societies, owing to heeding the call to vaccination.”Gavi.org

National

Coal train in flames: NRZ locomotive damaged in fire incident

Published

6 days ago

April 16, 2025

VicFallsLive

BY WANDILE TSHUMA

A National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) locomotive suffered significant damage after catching fire while transporting export coal to Zambi. The incident occurred between Kalala and Matetsi sidings, resulting in the explosion of the locomotive’s fuel tanks.

According to the NRZ press statement on Monday, “A National Railways of Zimbabwe locomotive suffered some damages after it caught fire this afternoon while transporting export coal to Zambia.” Fortunately, the crew members on board managed to escape unharmed.

The NRZ responded swiftly to the incident, dispatching a rescue train with crews to the site. The team successfully extinguished the fire, preventing further damage. However, the locomotive itself sustained considerable damage.

The cause of the fire is yet to be determined, with investigations currently underway. “Investigations are already underway to establish the cause of the fire and the amount of damage to the locomotive,” the NRZ statement read.

In the community

Human-wildlife conflict claims 18 lives in Zimbabwe’s first quarter

Published

6 days ago

April 16, 2025

VicFallsLive

BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) has reported a disturbing trend of human-wildlife conflict in the country’s first quarter of 2025. According to the authority, 18 people have lost their lives, and 32 others have been injured in encounters with wildlife.

ZimParks spokesperson Tinashe Farawo revealed that the authority received 579 cases of human-wildlife conflict, which they managed to respond to promptly. The incidents have also resulted in significant livestock losses, with at least 53 cattle and 85 goats killed by wildlife.

The districts most affected by these incidents include Binga, Hwange, Kariba, Chiredzi, Hurungwe, Nyaminyami, and Mbire. ZimParks has been working tirelessly to raise awareness about wildlife behaviors and effective preventive measures in these areas.

In response to the crisis, ZimParks has translocated 129 animals back into protected areas and eliminated 158 animals deemed problematic.

“We encourage communities to continue reporting incidents to ZimParks Problem Animal Control numbers and local leadership, such as Councillors, Traditional Leaders, and Rural District Council Authorities, to ensure that we preserve lives,” Farawo urged.

The significant increase in livestock losses, with cattle deaths rising from 18 to 53 and goat deaths from 21 to 85 compared to the same period in 2024, highlights the growing challenge of human-wildlife conflict in Zimbabwe.

ZimParks’ efforts to mitigate the conflict include community initiatives to educate people on managing wildlife encounters effectively.

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Tens of Thousands in Zimbabwe Go Hungry as the Rains — and US Aid — Hold Back

Published

3 weeks ago

April 4, 2025

VicFallsLive

Tanayeishe Musau eats baobab porridge after school at his home in Mudzi, Zimbabwe, where the dish has become a daily staple amid worsening drought and hunger. Once a simple supplement, baobab porridge is now a primary meal for families like his, following widespread food shortages and the suspension of international aid.

BY LINDA MUJURU

This story was originally published by Global Press Journal.

Agnes Tauzeni stands on her parched field. She is a mother to two children, and is expecting another. But now, in a time that might otherwise have been joyful, her hopes wither like the struggling crops before her.

Three times she’s gambled on the rains; three times the sky has betrayed her. Her first two plantings failed. The soil was too dry to sustain life. Though her third attempt yielded a few weak shoots, they offered little promise of a meaningful harvest. El Niño-driven droughts have disrupted once-reliable rains, leaving Tauzeni’s family and many like hers struggling to feed themselves.

“I am always hungry,” Tauzeni says.

She worries about the health of her unborn child, based on how little nutrition she consumes herself.

Adding to this, food aid, previously funded by the US Agency for International Development, halted suddenly in January. That transformed what was already a struggle into a desperate battle for survival.

The food aid ended when US President Donald Trump, on his first day in office, issued an executive order that paused nearly all US foreign aid, most of which was administered by USAID. That agency is now all but defunct.

Food aid in Zimbabwe was an ongoing area of funding for USAID. In November 2024, the agency announced $130 million for two seven-year programs, implemented by CARE and Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture, that would provide food aid and other related support to areas of Zimbabwe most in need. The programs, which stopped, were just part of an ongoing slate of activities designed to help Zimbabwe’s neediest people.

About 7.6 million people in Zimbabwe — nearly half the country’s population — need humanitarian assistance, according to a 2025 UNICEF report. Of those, nearly 6 million, like Tauzeni, rely on subsistence farming.

Through the support of organizations with funding from USAID, people previously received cereals, edible seeds, oil and food vouchers.

“A sudden withdrawal can put the entire community in a dire situation,” says Hilton Mbozi, a seed systems and climate change expert.

Tauzeni recalls that her community used to receive food supplies such as beans, cooking oil and peanut butter to help combat malnutrition.

When Tauzeni got married in 2017, her fields promised abundance. Her harvests were plentiful, and her family never lacked food. Now, those memories feel like whispers from another world. The past two agricultural seasons, those harvests have been devastatingly poor.

With an empty granary and dwindling options, Tauzeni’s family survives on the same food every day: baobab porridge in the morning and sadza with wild okra in the evening. But Tauzeniworries whether even this will be on the table in the coming months.

“The little maize I have, I got after weeding someone else’s crops, but that won’t take us far,” she says.

Tauzeni says a 20-kilogram (44-pound) bag of maize costs US$13 in her village, an amount out of reach for her. Her only source of income is farming. When that fails, she has no money at all.

Hunger like Tauzeni experiences is widespread. Some families now eat just once a day.

Headman David Musau, leader of Musau village where Tauzenilives, says some people in his village did not plant any seeds this season, fearing losses due to the low rainfall. The government provides food aid inconsistently, usually 7 kilograms (15 pounds) of wheat per person for three months.

“It’s not enough, but it helps,” he says.

But without any other food aid, survival is at stake, he says. “People will die in the near future.”