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Clinic needed at Caledonia Farm: officials
The Herald (Zimbabwe)
June 07, 2005

http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?id=44086&pubdate=2005-06-07

A CLINIC is urgently needed at Caledonia Farm near Mabvuku where some 38 families and 30 street children awaiting relocation to other places are staying after their illegal structures were demolished, officials have said.

There are no toilets at the farm, which has resulted in over 150 denizens at the farm using nearby bushes, thereby exposing themselves to diseases and infections.

However, the Deputy Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Edwin Muguti, said his ministry was fully prepared to put up clinics and health services where there was need as long as the necessary channels were followed. He said the Government had always believed in health for all but there were certain procedures to follow when embarking on any programme.

"We cannot just move in, the Ministry of Home Affairs is responsible. When informed about such things, of course, we are always prepared to ensure that people have access to health services," Dr Muguti said.

Officer-in-Charge at the farm, Inspector Eunice Gamuchirai Marange, said there was desperate need to set up an emergency health service provider at the farm. Inspector Marange said she had received numerous complaints about cases of diarrhoea and colds from some people at the farm.

"As with every place where people are settled, there is need for a clinic here. What makes the plight of the people here even worse is that they are living and sleeping in the open, which makes them more vulnerable to colds and other infections.

"The children are worst affected and it is my appeal to the relevant authorities that a mobile clinic be set up or some health services staff to come in from time to time just to check on the situation here," she said.

A survey by The Herald revealed that different families had allocated themselves sections where they would cook and sleep. While water was being ferried by the police from the nearby Mabvuku suburb to the farm, some people were fetching water from streams and a nearby dam. To counter the looming health hazard, Inspector Marange said street kids at the farm were digging some pit toilets.

"Work is underway to dig pit latrines so that people here have that all important facility. Digging the toilets has also proved very important as it is keeping people busy and thus preventing them from running away back to the streets," she said. Of the more than 30 street kids that have been taken to Caledonia in transit none have escaped.

Nine families have indicated their wish to go to their rural homes if the police arrange transport while some street kids have been reunited with their families.

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