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Warrant Officer 2 Gilbert Myambo
In fulfilling its secondary role of providing support to civil authorities and civil communities, Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo (JZM) Air Force Base, formerly Field Air Force Base (FAFB) has partnered Ward 24 community of Chegutu in the construction of a clinic at Brunswick Farm.
The development comes after the farm house which the community had been using as Brunswick Clinic was in 2017 deemed to be unsafe for use due to its dilapidated state.
The closure of the clinic would have meant that the residents of Ward 14 would have had to travel distances of up to 22km to access the nearest health centres in either Chegutu or Kadoma.
The looming closure of the clinic jerked the Ward 14 community into mobilising resources and looking for partners in their bid to save the only health centre in the ward.
The local Member of Parliament, Hon Dexter Nduna and the Chegutu Rural District Council were approached to provide the required logistical and material support.
In this endeavour, the Ward Councillor, Rose Matambo, and the then Brunswick Health Centre chairperson, Mr Samuel Phiri, in 2019 requested the Base Commander JZM Air Force Base for human and material resources.
As part of the AFZ’s corporate social responsibility, the Base Commander quickly assembled and dispatched a team of AFZ artisans drawn from different trades to work on the project.
The artisans have been working on the project ever since and are about to finish the first phase of the project that includes completion of roof work. In addition, the base also provided the community with quarry stones and river sand for use on the project.
Commenting on the AFZ role on the project, Wing Commander Kidwell Chimanikire said that the project is a goodwill gesture to the Chegutu community
“The Brunswick project is the brainchild of the local MP and the local leadership. As the Air Force, we participated in the project as part of our social responsibility contribution to the community from which we are recruiting from.
This is also a sign of our commitment to cultivate the existing relationship that the base has with the local community. Additionally, we are situated within Ward 24, as such the establishment of modern health centre will also indirectly benefit some of the students at our primary and secondary schools who reside outside the base,” he said.
Online Reporter