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in Nyazura, several kilometres away, meaning it is quite a distance that requires her to board a bus.
Many more people come from Gutu, Mutare, Harare and even Bulawayo to access the quality services offered by the health facility.
Charity has been on ART since 2007 and finds the hospital her second home.
Charity, who tested HIV positive the same year, said she can never dream of transferring to a centre in her home area. She speaks of the professional care she receives and hence can not see herself being served anywhere else.
With her baby now aged seven also on pediatric ART, she spoke of the concern and care she has received from Murambinda Hospital staff with pride.
She gets to have her CD4 count run free of charge after every six months. She says in her home area, that is not the case. Patients have their CD4 count done in the first place before commencing ARVs and due to the cost, they never get to have that done again, she said.
“Even when I fall ill from any other ailments, I get treated and my CD4 count is monitored every six months. Today I have a CD4 count of 460 which shows that I am improving greatly.
“I gave birth to my baby in 2005. I delivered at home. I have two older children. I had never heard of prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV so I delivered at home.
“Sadly my marriage got turbulent and my husband left when the baby was barely five months old,” said Charity recently in Murambinda.
“I became a weakling from 2006 and by the time I came to Murambinda in 2007 my baby and I could hardly walk,” she said.
At the hospital she was advised to take an HIV test which she did together with her baby.
They both tested HIV positive and said her CD4 count was around 50.
She lost both parents and has three brothers who all work in Harare so the going was tough for her when she fell ill.
“My relatives had cancelled me off. One of my sisters-in-law even told me that I was a moving grave and it was not long before they would bury me and my baby,” she said.
She did not listen to these prophets of doom and despite her failing health, she took strength and hope from the counselling she received at the hospital.
“I did not give up. In fact, that same sister-in-law is the one we buried and here I am today fit as a fiddle because I accepted my status and that of my baby and we were going to live,” she said.
Charity today has no sign of any illness. She has moved from the gaunt fully blown Aids figure she was in 2007, to a healthy woman who is now capable of looking after her family as a single parent.
Charity has been open with her older children and has told them that the two of them are on ARVs.
“I had to tell them. They understood and it was necessary in case I travelled and came home late. They had to give the young girl her medication on time.
“We take our medication at 6am and 6pm everyday so I have set an alarm on the family cellphone, so time to take medication is not a secret. When I am away, the young girl is given her medication on set times as prescribed and I have found no problem with my older children,” Charity said.
Charity said she has found it important to inform her child’s teacher of the girl’s status.
“I have to bring the girl to Murambinda once in two months for her check up and the teacher has to know why she misses school. She then makes up the lost time when the girl is back.
“I saw it of great importance that the teacher is in the know so that she helps the child where necessary,” she said.
She said the teacher has been helpful and her child catches up on any missed class work.
Charity sees a vast difference in her community and that of Buhera.
“My community has not embraced positive living the same way Murambinda community has. At one time, some health personnel came to visit our area and were urging people to get tested.
“The surprising thing was that only people who knew their status and were on ART attended. It was like it’s a course for them. So I find it queer that people still live in denial in my community,” she said.
“At the end of the course, we got certificates and I have helped many people in my home area who fall ill and keep going to n’angas and faith healers. I tell them to go to the clinic and get tested,” said the open minded Charity.
Charity has been open to men who propose love to her.
“If a man approaches me, I tell them of my status,” said Charity.
Charity says knowledge is power and power is life.
Sister in-charge at the hospital, Susan Tawodzera concurs that the community has embraced positive living.
She hails the decentralisation that has taken place as this has de-congested the hospital.
“With ART now dispensed in all clinics, only serious cases are now referred to the district hospital,” said sister Tawodzera.
“The blood samples for CD4 count are sent from the clinics, even sputum for TB tests. We only have patients coming for X rays here so this has worked well,” said the nurse in charge.
“We still have patients coming from outside the district, they do not want to change because here investigations are not paid for,” she added.
Before one commences ART, a full blood count, and a CD4 count test is done, so is a liver and kidney test function. For diabetics a glucose test is required. All these are done free of charge at the centre.
She said with the opening up of a health facility that offers ART in Gutu, most Gutu patients are bound to transfer. She looked forward to the opening up of the Chikomba Art centre which will further lessen the load on Murambinda.
The Natpharm is now providing the ARVs needed in the district. Murambinda hospital no longer has an OI clinic as a separate entity, it now offers an integrated health service in the out patients department. This somehow, goes a long way to shed away stigma.
Working together with MSF Belgium as their partners, the centre has changed gloom and doom to hope and positive living.
MSF Belgium has equipped the hospital with a geneXpert machine, the CD4 count machine and a doctor who works at the centre. The geneXpert machine diagnose TB which is resistant to rifampicin. Rifampicin is the main drug in TB treatment.
MSF-Belgium has built a waiting area for pregnant mothers and rehabilitated the outpatients department at a cost of US$700 000.
The waiting list in the district is negligible, with only those waiting for their investigations to be completed on the list. Everyone eligible for ART is catered for.
The district has reached out to 88 percent of people in need of ART.
The success of Murambinda hospital has posed a challenge as people come from as far as Harare, Mutare and even Bulawayo. No one has been turned away.
It is possible to have an HIV free generation, it all begins with you.
Online Reporter