Each household agreed to contribute an average $0.30 towards the course. Since the clinic caters for our medical needs it is our responsibility as a community to improve its facilities, said Headman Jacob Chapendama, at a recent gathering attended by local villagers and traditional leadership.
Run by the Marondera Rural District Councils health department, the clinic caters for more than 3 000 households from wards 19 and 20. Lack of lighting facilities causes nightmares for emergency patients such as pregnant women referred to the clinic at night.
Nurses face problems when assisting women to deliver babies during the night. They normally use candles but it is dangerously difficult to see during cases of minor surgery. Such conditions put lives of poor patients at risk, said a female villager from Mupazviriho.
The council collects revenue from the clinic despite its failure to provide basic facilities.
Though the council collects more than $600 from the clinic in revenue every month, villagers thought it not wise to consult the failed local authority for assistance in this regard. The council has ignored our plight before and approaching it again would be a waste of time, hence the resolve for villagers to go it alone, said a traditional leader on condition of anonymity.
Post published in: News