The Good Samaritans of Mt Olive

Sharon Kavhu
Lying approximately 216km from Harare is an abandoned farmhouse that has become a safe haven for children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). On the outskirts of Odzi, the farmhouse – owned by the De Kock family until they abandoned it in 2002 – had become a vending site and shebeen, adding to the dilapidation of the property.

However, the neglected structure has been converted into the Mount Olive Mission Hospital Muscular Dystrophy Centre.

Muscular dystrophy is a rare genetic disability that affects mostly males. It starts manifesting from about two years of age to about six years, and those with it usually don’t live beyond 20 years.

Whilst females can be carriers, they are rarely affected. Because the condition affects muscles, it stops an individual from walking normally and may eventually cause one to use a wheelchair.

The old farmhouse has undergone renovations and can be mistaken for a recreational facility with its neat structures and colourfully-painted buildings.

“Our children could have been homeless if it was not for Government’s timely intervention that made it possible for us to renovate this place and make it a safe home for them,” explained the founder of District Outreach for Care and Support (Docas) Reverend Togara Mapingure during a recent tour of the facility.

Rev Mapingure’s organisation had been looking after children with muscular dystrophy at a boarding house in Odzi, a few kilometres further from where the mission hospital stands.

Unfortunately, the boarding house was small and had few beds.

“This place was being abused by some community members who were selling beer illegally. So we made an application to the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing requesting to turn the farm house into a home for our disabled children,” explained Rev Mapingure.

“We submitted the application in 2012 and it was approved in 2014 when we started looking for donations to renovate it into what it has become now.”

Now, what used to be a workshop for cars is now a classroom for the children, while the former three lock-up garages have been turned into a dining room and kitchen. What used to be a storerooms for tobacco, shelter for the granary machines and a butchery are now an administration block.

“We now have a medical examining room, health centre, hospital wards and a big physiotherapy room from the former farm main house,” said Rev Mapingure.

“On a weekly basis, we have a doctor or nurses visit twice or thrice to attend to our children and we use the examining rooms,” he explained, as he demonstrated how one of the medical beds can be used to adjust temperatures in the examining room.

Life for children living with muscular dystrophy was not easy before the new home. Besides being rejected by local communities as some people associate the condition with family curses and witchcraft, others would not let them play with their children, fearing the condition could be contagious.

But all this has changed with the opening of the new facility, where the children share time, hope and experiences together. The opening of the facility has opened new learning doors for the children, because children living with muscular dystrophy find it difficult to fit in an ordinary education system.

The centre is home to 16 children with muscular dystrophy, where they have access to basic education, caretakers who bath, feed and assist them in using the toilet.

The institution is still waiting for three trained teachers from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education following a request made early this year.

Rev Mapingure applauded the roles played by Government, local companies and international donors in helping make the dream of Mount Olive Mission Hospital come true. Resources for the renovations and constructions came from well-wishers, both locally and internationally.

Rev Mapingure added: “Well-wishers have been supportive, some of the containers we received from Mount Olive are yet to be opened as they carry advanced medical equipment that needs specialists to teach us how to use them. Over and above, the church is also helping us in raising US$68 000 for the renovations.”

He said available medical equipment would see the facility offering clinical services to surrounding communities.