FRAD0402 | THE DELUGE AND THE DEPTHS: CLIMATE DISASTERS FUEL A 90% SURGE IN HIV VULNERABILITY FOR RURAL MANICALAND GIRLS IN ZIMBABWE

Tawonga Mugwanyu, Elliard Kupfuma, Kelvin Bepete | Students and Youth Working on Reproductive Health Action Team, Zimbabwe

The climate crisis exacerbates HIV vulnerability, a fact often overlooked. In Zimbabwe’s Manicaland Province, extreme weather like Cyclone Idai (2019) and recurrent droughts deepen

poverty for over 70% of rural households, eroding social protection. This forces adolescent girls into high-risk survival strategies. This youth-led reflection explores the intersection of climate change, gender inequality, and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), highlighting how these dynamics increase HIV risk among young women. This qualitative analysis draws from peer-led outreach by SAYWHAT (2023–2024) across 5 severely climate-affected districts in rural Manicaland. Data was collected through informal interviews and dialogue sessions with over 500 adolescent girls, 100 caregivers, and 30 frontline community health workers. Thematic analysis illustrated how climate-induced hardship profoundly impacts girls’ access to SRHR information and services, severely eroding their decision-making and autonomy. The findings show four worrying trends that are making HIV risk worse, and they are all linked to big climate events like Cyclone Idai. For example, 92% of the girls and 80% of the caregivers who were interviewed said that climate shocks made them feel more pressure to have transactional sex and get married young, which is linked to losing income and not having enough food. Catastrophic disruption of HIV and essential SRHR services: 95% of community health workers described how climate emergencies caused widespread service disruptions; over 70% of adolescent girls couldn’t access vital care during/after disasters. Pervasive cultural stigma and silence amplified: Nearly 98% of sessions revealed how pre-existing stigma and silence around sex/reproductive health were intensified by climate stress, limiting girls’ ability to seek help or accurate information. Exclusion from policy discourse: Despite lived experience, 98% of reviewed policy discussions showed systemic exclusion of rural girls from climate and health policy formulation, making them invisible in solutions meant to protect them. Climate change isn’t just an environmental/economic challenge; it’s a human rights and public health crisis worsening HIV vulnerability. Addressing this issue requires integrated strategies combining climate resilience, gender equality, and youth-led SRHR advocacy. Peer-led models, like SAYWHAT’s, are essential for co-creating solutions that center the voices and resilience of adolescent girls at the nexus of climate, health, and justice.