Back to Index , Back to NAC conference index

Prioritising rural areas in AIDS interventions
Extracted from the UNICEF update from the First Zimbabwean National AIDS Conference June 15-18, 2004
June 17, 2004

Rural areas continue to receive less attention when it comes to HIV and AIDS interventions. Government and NGO’s involved in the AIDS fight tend to focus research activity and outreach programmes in cities and towns that are easily accessible. This point created heated discussion by some of the delegates who challenged both government and NGOs to involve rural populations.

Tsitsi Machisi, coordinator of the Sengwe Vamanani (Shangani Word for Women), a Home Based Care programme, said the accessibility of health facilities was a major problem. Sengwe is a border town situated 200 kilometres from Chiredzi town, where the largest hospital in the province is located. Chikombedzi, the nearest clinic from Sengwe, is 80 kilometres away. "The roads in Sengwe are in a bad state and this is why transport operators are reluctant to provide buses for us. The only bus that operates is a ZUPCO bus that comes once a week," said Machisi. "The problem of transport and clinics that are situated far away from villages is a hindering factor in our interventions. If a patient under our care develops a condition needing urgent hospital attention it becomes a problem. "I have seen so many people die because they could not access health facilities quickly. It is very painful to watch people die and you know there is nothing to you can do. I hope the relevant ministry can look into this issue."

Machisi said people living with AIDS succumbed quickly to the virus mostly because of malaria and malnutrition. "Chiredzi is a very dry area and as such food production is poor and it is hot so it is a malarial zone. We need NGOs and the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare to come and help us with food aid and also with malaria tablets to give to our patients," appealed Machisi.

Another coordinator of a Mutoko based HBC narrated how she and her patients failed to access anti retroviral drugs from Harare Hospital despite showing evidence that they were PLWA’s. "When we heard that the Ministry of Health was now giving ARV’s for free we were overjoyed. I was referred to ‘Room Five’, at Harare Hospital. I then advised my patients to prepare bus fare and the next day we were on the first bus to Harare so full of hope for a new lease on life. By nine in the morning we were standing outside ‘Room 5’ but they were no drugs. We were turned away. They are no drugs they said and we would have to come back some other time. We stood helplessly outside as we watched people going in and out of that office and coming out smiling."

Danmore Sithole, director for Matabeleland AIDS Council said that NGOs and government needed to reach rural populations as much as possible. "There is no excuse really for limiting interventions to the towns and cities when we know full well that this is a national problem. The rural population is suffering more even those in the urban areas and this I speak from experience," Sithole said.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP