Zimbabwe hospital sets up radio station for spiritual counselling

In recent years, hospitals in this southern African country that currently
 faces dire economic circumstances have constantly run out of medicines as
 a result of the government quickly exhausting its health annual budget
 each year. The government says the situation is compounded by
 international sanctions imposed on the country and a perennial shortage of
 foreign currency to import vital drugs.
Sanctions have been imposed due to accusations of human rights abuses by
 the government of President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since
 health resources has resulted in the deaths of thousands of patients.
Still, in a somewhat optimistic statement, Audrey Tasarenarwo, public
 relations officer for Chitungwiza’s central hospital, told the State-owned
 daily Herald newspaper of 19 December, “The hospital is [now] wrongly
 viewed as a place where people go to die, instead of a place to
 recuperate. For this reason, we have introduced a radio channel that is
 aimed at providing patients with hope, and to convince them there is
 indeed life after discharge from hospital.”
She said some seriously sick people who believed hospitals in Zimbabwe
 were a “final destination” refused to be hospitalised because they feared
 they would never recover once admitted.
The hospital’s radio station went on air for the first time on 16
 December. It offers two-hourly broadcasts each Sunday morning, when
 pastors from churches of this mainly Christian country of 13 million
 “As a hospital, we can only provide patients with medication but we cannot
 the church,” said Tasarenarwo.
Chitungwiza is a dormitory town of about one million people, 25 kilometres
 south of Harare.
Hospital authorities report that mortuaries are now overwhelmed, with the
 death rate being compounded by AIDS-related diseases. Health minister Dr
 David Parirenyatwa recently said that 15 percent of Zimbabwe’s adult
 population was living with HIV and AIDS.
Many Zimbabweans now ironically refer to the country’s health delivery
 system as being “in the intensive care unit”. – ENI News