BULAWAYO - Villagers at Chefunye in Tsholotsho District have weaned themselves from the dependency syndrome by building a community clinic in their area. The village, which is situated about 42 km north west of Plumtree, had a stand pegged for the clinic nearly 15 years ago, but donor help had not been forthcoming.This forced the villagers to walk up to 15km to clinics in the neighbouring villages of Tshabanda and Bhubhude. The ward 19 councillor, Alois Ndebele, under whose jurisdiction Chefunye falls, said villagers mobilised themselves to build the clinic in 2005. Since then building materials and expertise has been received from various sources and the villagers have done the actual work themselves.
Plan International gave 300 bags of cement, and the Rural Development Fund (RDF) then donated more cement to build the 24-bed clinic which is set to have four houses for nurses.
We expect the clinic to be complete by the end of this month. It will have four wards that will each have six beds and there will be four cottages for the nursing staff, said Ndebele.
Plan International has pledged to provide us with beds for the wards and the ministry of health has already started recruiting staff for the clinic, he said.
Two of the staff cottages have been completed so far while a few asbestos sheets are needed to complete the clinic.
An elderly villager, Dan Ndlovu expressed pride in the clinic.
In my life, I have been proud of many things. But the one thing that fills me with the most pride is this clinic, where everyone in Chefunye sweated and the community worked in one accord. Even the recent immunisation exercise was carried out in the incomplete clinic, he said, proudly.