Children vulnerable to the climate crisis

By Nomzamo Gwebu

Most parts of Africa have seen the effects of climate change. Zimbabwe is one of the countries that have experienced changes in weather patterns. Persistent cyclones, droughts and floods have resulted in widespread damage of infrastructure.

The 2019 cyclone Idai is one of the incidents that affected me. It was at night at around 11 PM when there were very strong winds and heavy rainfall. We were in the house sleeping. All of a sudden our roof was blown away.

Water started to get straight into the house. There were electrical gadgets that were connected in the house, upon getting soaked the fire started and we lost a few property, our television and a laptop that was connected were destroyed although there was power blackout later. When that happened, I was staying with my siblings only because my parents live in South Africa where they work.

We went to our next door neighbor to seek for help at night. They helped us to move the furniture to place them into one of the rooms that had not been damaged. For almost a month we did not have the money to fix the roof. We were sleeping together in one room with my siblings. It was quite a difficult time for us. There was no privacy since we only had one room with a roof.

When I communicated with my parents about the disaster, they told me that they were also facing financial challenges. I tried to engage local authorities to get help but they all indicated that there was no money to support me. I realized that the climate crisis largely affects people in the developing countries because governments do not put aside resources to support families affected by the climate crisis.

I n also observed that children are the most vulnerable and are more likely to be affected since more than 50% of the households are child headed. Many parents in Zimbabwe live in the diaspora.