HARARE, April 25 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC), a state institution, has started offering psycho-social support to survivors of Cyclone Idai in the Ngangu area of Chimanimani District with assistance from its parent ministry of health and child care.
Various experts, including the United Nations, have called for survivors to be given psycho-social support in view of the trauma they went through as the cyclone ravaged their areas and left more than 300 people dead, displaced thousands others and caused massive destruction to infrastructure.
ZNFPC provincial marketing and communications officer Daniel Maromo told The Herald newspaper that they had health facilitators working in Chimanimani giving psycho-social support to the cyclone survivors.
"We are offering psycho-social support to the survivors since Cyclone Idai was a traumatic event and these people need counselling services," he said.
He said ZNFPC had scaled up its services to support Cyclone Idai survivors to access family planning and contraceptives in Chimanimani and Chipinge districts.
"The uptake of contraceptives in cyclone-hit areas has been compromised and we have since scaled up our services to make sure that everyone has access to contraceptives and condoms," he said.
He said they were giving contraceptives and condoms for free in the affected areas, including at household level.
