ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on migrant communities, particularly women refugees, and their appropriation of religion in the face of COVID-19 vaccination in Zimbabwe. The study centers on the responses of women refugees of the Johanne Marange Apostolic Church at Tongogara Refugee Camp (TRC) in Chipinge. The research utilizes a feminist political ecology (FPE) theoretical framework and a qualitative research design to assess the responses of these women refugees to the vaccination program against the backdrop of religious beliefs and individual standpoints. The chapter argues that using religion to evade vaccination is a time bomb and a deadly ‘comedy of errors’, which makes the women refugees potential super spreaders of the disease. There is a need to investigate the extent to which the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and its partners in the camp are reacting to vaccination hesitancy by women refugees as they struggle to respect people’s beliefs while at the same time seeking to balance this with the mandate to prevent possible harm they may inflict on others. The study concludes that despite the effort by the host government to allow refugees to benefit from national vaccination programmes, religion has been the major obstacle to the success of the programme among refugee communities.
