By Moses Mugugunyeki The Zimbabwe Red Cross Society (ZRCS) has stepped up efforts to strengthen community resilience to disasters in cyclone-prone districts. Chimanimani and Chipinge districts in Manicaland province were among the places that were hard hit by Cyclone Idai in 2019. According to the United Nations, Cyclone Idai affected three million people across Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi. The cyclone claimed the lives of over 1 300 people while thousands others were displaced and without shelter, food, access to clean water and proper sanitation. Cyclone Chalane, which significantly weakened into a tropical storm, passed during the last week of last year without causing the catastrophic damage as earlier anticipated. The tropical storm was expected to strike the districts of Buzi, Beira, Dondo and Muanza in central Mozambique as well as Chimanimani and Chipinge as well as other districts in Manicaland province. It, however, failed to cause much of the damage in the Eastern Highlands where it had been forecast to pass through. It is against such a background that the ZRCS with the support of WWF Zimbabwe moved in to establish community disaster rescue and preparedness centres (CDRPC) in Chimanimani and Chipinge. The project, which is nearing completion, was funded to the tune of US$150 000. “Given the high recurrence of natural disasters and learning from the weaknesses of the Cyclone Idai response, the need for enhancing the preparedness capacity of Chimanimani and Chipinge is paramount in the efforts to promote long-term recovery,” said Stambuli Kim, ZRCS head of communications. “As such, the ZRCS has come up with a project meant to strengthen community resilience to disasters through the establishment of community disaster rescue and preparedness centres, simply known as evacuation centres. “This should build capacity of institutions and communities for disaster preparedness as well as facilitate for timely response and recover.” This publication recently visited one of the centres being constructed at Manzvire clinic in Chipinge. “We are almost done as you can see. The roofing material is on its way and we hope the centres will serve their purposes,” said Kim. The ZRCS has come up with a cocktail of preparedness actions to minimise the cyclone’s impact on communities. Part of the activities will include Red Cross volunteers sharing potentially life-saving information in disaster-prone communities, including the position of safe areas, medical help and key actions to take before disasters occur.