Angel of Hope brings free healthcare to Binga

Nqobile Tshili

HUNDREDS of Binga villagers have received free medical treatment and medication courtesy of First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa’s Angel of Hope Foundation’s partnership with United States doctors.

The First Lady rolled out a three-day outreach programme in Binga in partnership with a 14-member team of experts from the United States working under ZimbabWe Care, which was founded in 2014 by an American citizen, Mr Eric Rose.

The team was camped at the remotely located Chisizya in Binga, where it offered free medical assistance to hundreds of community members that thronged the site of a clinic that is under construction in an area that is close to Gokwe.

Today, the team is expected to take the programme to Chibila Clinic.

Members of the public received free dental treatment, eye checks and glasses, and medication for various ailments, including malaria tablets, as Amai Mnangagwa’s works continue to impact the lives of vulnerable members of the community.

Angel of Hope Foundation in collaboration with its partners also donated preparation materials for expecting mothers as well as football kits and balls to seven local schools.

Children were also gifted toys.

The Foundation also provided menstrual cups to women to improve their sexual reproductive health. Angel of Hope Foundation board member Mrs Rachel Nield-Geranios said the First Lady’s vision to transform the most vulnerable communities attracted the American doctors.

“One of the things that is so exciting about Angel of Hope Foundation and Amai’s programmes is that they are targeting some of those vulnerable areas where many people are tired to go. It’s hard to get here. We had a breakdown three times on the way but nothing was going to stop the team from getting here and they turned up in their numbers. The beautiful thing about this is that for Amai, it’s about getting to places that no one else wants to go to,” she said.

“It’s about leaving no one behind. Everybody matters; every community matters. So, it’s great that Angel of Hope Foundation and its efforts in that space has attracted partners with that mindset that we will go where the need is and not where it is easy, but where we will make a difference. What matters is getting to the people who do not have access to these services and trying to equalise healthcare and health access throughout the country.”

Mrs Nield-Geranios said while American doctors have visited the local community to offer medication, Amai Mnangagwa and her partners will soon commission a clinic in the area that will ensure permanent access to healthcare for the community. She said the clinic project was born when Amai Mnangagwa started a nutritional garden scheme for Chisizya Village in a bid to address food security challenges.

“We started here a few years ago with agricultural projects. Angel of Hope Foundation, agronomists and a team came and established gardens all the way from Tsholotsho through some of the most remote areas in Matabeleland, and we realised that there was great need for medical intervention, and because of the great work that Amai is doing because of Angel of Hope Foundation, a lot of organisations wanted to partner with her,” she said.

The team that is attending to patients, Mrs Nield-Geranios said, includes an expert on saving newly-born babies who might have difficulties breathing.

“Some of the members who are part of the ZimbabWe Care who have come to work with Angel of Hope Foundation are part of the programme called Help Babies Breath. It is a programme that is taught and is advocated by the African Union and it is often taught in Harare and Bulawayo, but, unfortunately, it’s difficult to get to places like this. So, it is difficult to disseminate that information, but these people have trained and brought all the tools, sample dolls and babies to help staff in the clinics to help babies breath so that we can contribute to reduce infant mortality in our delivery units in rural areas,” she added.

“So, we are excited to have the Help Babies Breath programme. The advocates of the programme met with Amai many years ago and expressed their wish to partner with her in helping to bring that programme to the most remote parts of the country. I am happy that the Helping Babies Breathe programme is happening.”

Mr Rose, the ZimbabWe Care founder, said working with Amai Mnangagwa for the past four years has enabled his organisation to reach out to vulnerable communities that were not known and inaccessible.

He said his team comprises nurses, doctors and other health practitioners.

“ZimbabWe care has been coming to Zimbabwe for a number of years but our association with Amai has been phenomenal. It has opened up a lot of opportunities for us to come to places like this and many other places where we could not access. We focus on rural communities that don’t typically get the kind of healthcare and sometimes are out of the way or don’t get much focus. To be able to partner with Angel of Hope, to come to a place like this, this is what we live for,” said Mr Rose.

“Our team this year, there are 14 of us, including myself. Last year, we were 17 but typically it will go from 13 to 17 doctors, nurses, healthcare providers and our focus, we love to be in the rural communities and we like to be serving these populations that may not be able to see many physicians and the kind of healthcare that we give. We understand that we are not the only health service provider but we can come and complement what Angel of Hope and others are doing.”

He said working in the health sector in America has enabled him to mobilise health practitioners to come on a medical tour in the country to help Amai Mnangagwa’s charitable works.

Mr Rose has fallen in love with Zimbabwe, its culture and people and even calls himself Mhofu.

From time to time he throws vernacular words in his speech. He said members of his team are volunteers who fund their trip to the country just to help people. The team’s partnership with Angel of Hope Foundation has seen it attending to up to 400 patients per day.

“Through our partnership, Angel of Hope recognises that there are people here, there are needs out there and we then can come in. One of the focuses that we bring is helping babies’ breath, it’s a worldwide programme,” said Mr Rose.

“Two of our team members who are visiting for the third time went out of their own accord and money and got certified so that when they come back with us this year, they could help and bring the materials with the nurses who will be here, helping babies breath.”

Mr Rose said collaboration has been key as institutions such as Government build clinics and his team brings the expertise that will be required. Another organisation working closely with Angel of Hope, Love for Africa, is constructing a clinic in Chisizya.

Love for Africa founder Mr Blessing Munyenyiwa said the construction project started two years ago and is expected to be completed within a few weeks.

He said the First Lady was the reason why they came to build a clinic in Binga.

“She was the reason why we came and built this hospital (clinic). Of many places, she felt that this area in Binga needed the (clinic) help and on her request, we came and built this hospital in Chisizya. If you can imagine how difficult it is to access this area and for that very reason, people as you have seen in their numbers coming to see doctors, had really not have a hospital or clinic to call their own. This area that Amai felt really needed the help, that’s why so many have come in their numbers to see a doctor, a nurse and this particular area that we have here is an area that we feel was forgotten for a very long time and it made it easier for us to do the project here under the most difficult circumstances,” Mr Munyenyiwa.

He said construction of the clinic started in March 2020 but progress was affected by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, the project will be completed in the coming two weeks.

The clinic will have a doctors’ shelter, mothers’ waiting room as additional buildings. Members of the public commended the First Lady’s partnership with doctors, saying it gave them a rare opportunity to access health care at their door step. Mrs Agnes Ncube said many times villagers fail to access healthcare because they do not have money.

“We are grateful for the free medical checks that have been offered to us. It has assisted a lot of us. Our nearest clinic is in Gokwe and we had to walk four hours to access it, while Lusulu Clinic in Binga, requires that we walk six hours to access it. So, it will be better to have our local clinic and we are looking forward to its completion,” said Mrs Ncube.

Another villager, Mr Michael Kapfuzaruwa, said access to free medical health is important especially for rural folks, most of whom lack financial resources to get treatment, hence the First Lady’s initiative must be commended.

“We are happy that these doctors came to the ground. A lot of us are having challenges accessing medication but today we were given some tablets freely. This is the kind of development that we are happy with as community,” said Mr Kapfuzaruwa.

Mrs Rumbidzai Hozheri, an expecting mother who received a baby-preparation hamper, expressed gratitude to the First Lady for the gifts.