It is the rainy season now in Zimbabwe, and God has blessed us with good rains. The harvest is plenty. Unfortunately in January and February the rains turned into floods across the country. In Harare where we live, thousands of people were left homeless. The damage is extensive; people were swept away, and telephone and electricity lines were ripped up.

Your partnership has allowed us to successfully mobilize basic support like foam rubber mattresses, food packs and tents to accommodate the affected families in our community. We also provided survivors with psycho-social support.

In December 2020 Zimbabwe was hit by a second wave of the vicious Covid19 virus. Prior to December, the country did not have many cases, but we now have over 1,400 deaths. Consequently, the whole country was placed in indefinite lockdown since January. Movement is restricted to essential service providers. Because the majority of people in the country have informal jobs, the impact of this lockdown is felt far and wide. Often times we are called to offer mediation services for domestic and community violence cases.

We are taking this opportunity to educate our community regarding how to stay safe. We are doing this virtually through various social media platforms. We mobilized community singers to produce Covid 19 songs and videos which we post on our social media platforms.

Christina sewing masks for Covid 19 donations

TOP Africa received some PPEs from friends which we are donating to the community. Through our tailoring project, we have been making masks which we donate to vulnerable populations (including orphaned children and the STEP Children of Peace Africa beneficiaries).

Zimbabwe is slowly starting the Covid 19 Vaccination program. The Government recently received a donation of 200 000 Sinopharm  doses from China to vaccinate 100 000 frontline workers. More vaccines are expected to come in due course. Nevertheless, some citizens are skeptical of this and other Covid vaccines. This is based on the negative history of colonialism, slavery, oppression that most Africans have experienced and continue to experience.

As Christians our joy lies in the fact that:

“By His stripes we are healed” Isaiah 53.5

Christina and Lance Muteyo