dyton mupawaenda
Talent Gore
TUBERCULOSIS survivors have embraced One Impact Zimbabwe, a tool that has become a key strategic response to combatting the challenges they face.
This will also overcome bottlenecks in ending the TB epidemic.
To bridge the gap, through funding from the Stop TB Partnership and Technical Support from the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC), the Jointed Hands Welfare Organisation in Zimbabwe (JHWO) is implementing the rollout of the “One Impact Zimbabwe mobile application.
The App is a community-led monitoring (CLM) solution process through which people affected by TB in particular Key and Vulnerable Populations are empowered to meaningfully engage and be part of the TB discourse.
“This a good Application with comprehensive information about TB,” Sithembile Fuzani of Kwekwe.
“I have used the App and it has made my work as a registrar easy.
“You find that once you register on the app, you get timely updates and feedback regarding any issue you might be facing.
“This has helped reduce the defaulter rate among TB patients as the App links them to the nearest health facilities for care.”
Ministry of Health National TB Programme Communications Officer, Andrew Nyambo, said the app has helped address the human rights-related issues affecting
“You find that there was no way or systematic mechanism to collect human rights-related data.
“You are aware that at the facility, all the data that goes into the Ministry’s DHIS tool is purely clinical and we were not recording the social and human rights-related barriers to access the services,” Nyambo said.
“The other problem was there was no real-time data on patient care surveillance and monitoring of TB services in the programmatic management of TB.”
“Previously, people would share their emotions around what they were facing at facilities but there was no documentation such that we could use that data, analyse the frequency and the number of times it has occurred so that it becomes a policy and an advocacy issue.”
Online Reporter