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Interview with Drs. Mubako and Borok of the Adult Rape Clinic, Mbuya Nehanda Maternity Wing, Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals
Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa, Kubatana.net
July 07, 2009

View audio file details

How was the Adult Rape clinic established?

Dr Mubako: It was a realization lots of rape survivors were presenting to the casualty department at Parirenyatwa Hospital. There were no adequate specialised services to deal with them, (the survivors) so a few colleagues came together: Dr Borok, Dr Iliff and myself (Dr Mubako) and started planning a free clinic to give women privacy and where they can be properly managed. Not just in terms of privacy, but that they can be managed in a comprehensive manner.

On average how many patients do you receive every week?

Dr Mubako: It varies. Monthly we see about thirty patients.

How are they referred to the clinic?

Dr Mubako: They come by various routes, some are sent to us by the police; some hear of us through word of mouth; anyone can come to the clinic, anyone who knows about the clinic can come.

How would you profile your patients by gender and age?

Dr Mubako: So far we have only seen females, we haven't seen males, but it is a service which is open to both male and female anyone involved in sexual violence can come and see us. The age distribution ranges from sixteen to about forty-five. More

What is the severity of the injury to survivors?

Dr Mubako: Sometimes it is very difficult to quantify, you have to think of physical injury and psychological injury. It is very difficult to quantify the psychological injury, as doctors we can quantify the physical injury by looking on and examining the patient, but the emotional part is a long-term thing and is very difficult to quantify.

Do you recommend that patients seek psychological counseling afterwards and do you provide those services?

Dr Mubako: We do provide extensive psychological counseling, and in cases where we feel we are not equipped to deal with a particular patient we will refer them to other counseling services that are better equipped than us.

What are the challenges you face in running the clinic?

Dr Borok: There are a lot of challenges that we face. Probably one of the most important ones is adequate training of nursing counseling and medical staff to be able to deal with these survivors. We are at the moment running the clinic during daytime hours, but we would like to extend the service to weekends and nights, and without adequate trained staff we can't do that. So that's one major challenge. Another are where we are going to be working is advocacy in terms of people's rights, women's rights predominantly, because the majority of our patients will probably be women, and that's another area for us to work in. Just establishing and running the clinic is going to be challenging financially, to date we have relied on a grant, which has been adequate in establishing the clinic but we will have financial challenges in running a comprehensive service. More

What are the services you offer to survivors?

Dr Mubako: It's a comprehensive service that we offer. We examine patients, we treat any injury that is evident. We provide a counseling service. We provide post exposure prophylaxis against HIV and we have comprehensive treatment against STDs. We also refer patients onto other organizations for support services. Quite a number of our patients are unable to pay the hospital consultation fees, so we provide consultation fees for those patients, of course we feel that a survivor should not be denied health care especially after sexual assault.

Dr Borok: The other thing we provide is a follow up service in terms of counseling and HIV testing which I think in this country at this time is an important aspect of our care.

Does a survivor have to have reported the crime to the police before they come?

Dr Mubako: They can come off the street they do not have to go through the police, they can come off the street. There are a lot of rape survivors who do not want to make it an issue or a police case, and they prefer to just come for treatment, they are welcome to come, we have seen several cases of that nature. But when we take documentation on that patient, as in all cases, we make sure that their documentation is done very well, so that if, at a later stage they decide that they want to have the police involved, we can transfer the information from their notes to the medical affidavit and give it to the police for the court process. More

What are your operating hours and location?

Dr. Mubako: We are open from 8am to 4pm and we are situated at Parirenyatwa Hospital, on the second floor of Mbuya Nehanda, which is the Maternity Wing.

If somebody wanted to help, or make a donation, how would they go about that?

Dr. Mubako: They can contact the administrator of the clinic, Mrs. Elizabeth Ndoro, on 707445/6. They can also contact Parirenyatwa Hospital (on 701555-7) and ask to be put through to the Adult Rape Clinic.

You can help The Adult Rape Clinic to continue to assist rape survivors. Their wish list includes office equipment, clothing for rape survivors, replacement underwear, bath towels, shower curtains and a washing machine. Phone them to find out how you can donate.

Audio File

• Patient profile
  Summary:
  Language: English
  Duration: 23sec
  Date: July 06, 2009
  File Type: MP3
  Size: 371KB
  
  
• Challenges
  Summary:
  Language: English
  Duration: 1min 20sec
  Date: July 06, 2009
  File Type: MP3
  Size: 1.23MB
  
  
• Anyone can come
  Summary:
  Language: English
  Duration: 51sec
  Date: July 06, 2009
  File Type: MP3
  Size: 804KB

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