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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Operation Murambatsvina - Countrywide evictions of urban poor - Index of articles
Mobile
clinic to benefit over 30 families
The
Herald (Zimbabwe)
June 23,
2005
http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?id=44634&pubdate=2005-06-23
THE Government has
set up a mobile clinic at Caledonia Farm to provide health services to
more than 30 families and some street children settled there following
the demolition of illegal structures they were living in under Operation
Restore Order.
The setting up of the clinic comes hard on the heels of growing calls
for the need of a health service provider by police details stationed
at the farm.
In an interview, the Deputy Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Edwin
Muguti, said his ministry had a duty to provide medical services to all
those needing them.
In a situation like the Caledonia one where different people suddenly
found themselves settled in a place without medical services, he said
the Government would naturally ensure that the services were made available.
"There is nothing special about the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare
coming in with a clinic in this instance because that it why we are there,"
he said.
The mobile clinics, which will be ready to offer services as and when
the need arose, which Dr Muguti estimated to be at least twice a week,
would go on until Caledonia Farm was cleared of all the settlers.
Caledonia is a temporary holding place for those awaiting relocation to
other places.
Because of the crowded conditions and lack of proper ablution facilities
at the farm, there were fears of disease outbreaks.
People at the farm hailed the Government’s move to provide a clinic, which
offers medical services for free and has adequate drugs.
An ambulance was even on standby to take care of any emergencies.
Nurses from Harare and Parirenyatwa Hospitals man the clinic while a doctor
makes periodical visits.
Staff at the clinic said they were attending to at least 50 patients a
day.
In a recent interview with The Herald, the officer in charge at the farm,
Inspector Eunice Gamuchirai Marange, had indicated that there was need
to set up an emergency health service provider at the farm.
She said she had received numerous complaints about cases of diarrhoea
and colds from some people at the farm.
Due to the absence of toilets at the farm during the initial phase, people
at the farm had resorted to using nearby bushes, thereby exposing themselves
to diseases.
However, the farm now has mobile toilets while families that used to stay
in the open are now living under the cover of tents donated by Christian
Care.
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