Tongogara Refugee Settlement is in Chipinge District, about 420 km southeast of the capital Harare. It hosts over 17,000 refugees and asylum seekers primarily from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and others in the Horn of Africa and Great Lakes region.
In my community, I have experienced and witnessed how the climate crisis poses protection risks on Refugees' livelihood, infrastructure, physical and mental health, as well as economic security. For instance, the 2019 Cyclone Idai and the ongoing El Niño drought have had a huge toll on my refugee community's infrastructure and agricultural livelihood badly.
In the aftermath of Cyclone Idai, I and other young people formed the Refugee Coalition for Climate Action (RCCA) with a mission to mobilize and empower refugee and host community youth, women, and children to be change agents for climate and environmental action to build adaptive capacity in our communities to the changing climate through a community-based approach.
Since 2021, RCCA has planted 2,257 trees, educated more than 3,000 young people on climate change and environment management, and conducted 120 cleanup campaigns in the Refugee Settlement and the hosting community. These efforts have enhanced the greening of public centers in Tongogara Refugee Settlement, improved food and nutrition security in 50 households through our fruit tree planting approach, built 50 refugee youth climate advocates, potentially fostered community-based adaptation and resilience to weather conditions, improved cleanness of public fields, and fostered behavioral change among young people on how they discard litter in the community.
We work in collaboration with the Settlement Administration, UNHCR Zimbabwe, and World Vision, and our impact is greater with the financial support of the Global Refugee Youth Network, Data4Change, and fundraising through GlobalGiving.
Due to the limited financial support the refugee-led we are unable to meet our target this year, we seek to build two school orchards, reach out to 5000 people, and plant about 5000 trees, seedlings are currently in our nursery garden.
