Chronicle Editor
Rejoyce Sibanda, Chronicle Reporter
NURSES24 Academy in Bulawayo is empowering underprivileged youths and drug addicts through offering nurse aide courses free of charge.
Ordinarily, the academy charges US$350 for the five-month nurse-aide course, where there is two months of theory and three months attachment.
Underprivileged young people simply have to provide proof that they cannot afford fees or that they are orphans.
The academy is giving hope for a bright future to former addicts to reduce chances of relapsing.
A number of people are using the nurse aide course to get visas to go abroad.
The self funded academy which also offers guidance and counselling to the youths, has been operating since 2019.
Mrs Rudo Hlongwane, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Nurses24 Academy said the organisation is basically working towards uplifting the community by helping individuals that are in need.
“The organisation realizes that some young people are being excluded in terms of education and empowerment, so we have decided to help them. Orphans and underprivileged persons who are willing to learn health courses are free to do so without having to pay. All we need is proof that one is an orphan or a relative that can vouch that they cannot afford to pay the fees,” said Mrs Hlongwane.
She said the youth that have families who can afford it, pay a fee of $US350 for the whole course period.
Mrs Hlongwane said Nurses24 has an intake of a maximum of 10 youths both male and female with at least three Ordinary level passes.
“The young people that abuse drugs and substances mostly come from dysfunctional families where there are a lot of conflicts and lack of parental guidance. Others end up committing suicide because of social pressure. Another cause of such cases is bad lessons from the society and youth lacking productive things to do in life after they finish or fail dismally at school, which then pushes them to drug and substance abuse,” said Mrs Hlongwane.
Besides the medical aspect she said the youths are groomed and go through character building lessons.
“The young people under rehabilitation are given a reset to life and most of them, in the first month of attending classes, will be already showing signs of change. I think it would be a great initiative that life skills programmes be done at primary education level and that the Government reaches out to help school leavers with projects that will keep them busy so that they stay away from abusing drugs,” said Mrs Hlongwane.
Miss Loveness Ndlovu (27) from Nketa suburb, a student at Nurses24 academy said she is a better person after the lessons and mentoring that she is getting from Nurses24 Academy.
“My nurse aide journey has been very fruitful especially working with Mrs Hlongwane who is also my inspiration. My passion has grown because of a lot of things that I have learnt in the course. I remember there was a time when my mother got sick and l was able to give a hand by applying home-based care that I had) learnt at the academy,” said Miss Ndlovu.
Nurses24 Academy is located at Esihlengweni Medical Chambers, near the Medical centre, along Josiah Tongogara Street.
@ReeSibanda
Online Reporter