Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube,Victoria Falls Reporter
MORE than 6 000 villagers in Hwange’s Kachechete ward will benefit from a new clinic whose construction is almost complete and due for opening early next year.
While having the clinic is an achievement for Vulindlela, Jabula, Simakade, Chidobe, Jenkwe and Vukuzenzele communities where villagers used to walk about 30km to and from the nearest clinics in Chisuma, Ndlovu and Jambezi, it is how the facility came into being that will linger forever in people’s minds.
The idea of a clinic was mooted in 2014 when a Form Two girl at Vulindlela Secondary School Leona Sibanda was attacked by a lone buffalo which left her with a fractured ankle and injured face.
Villagers could not immediately get a vehicle to rush her to hospital and fortunately the then councillor for the area Martin Ndlovu arrived at the scene and carried her before an ambulance could arrive.
It cost US$70 to carry a patient by ambulance from Vulindlela to Chisuma Clinic about 15km away at that time.
On the fateful day, villagers were gathered at Vulindlela Secondary School constructing a classroom block with the help of donors from Buy-A-Brick Foundation.
A passerby found her lying helpless in a bush behind her grandparents’ homestead and alerted villagers.
It was a miracle she survived, according to villagers. Buy-A-Brick Foundation authorities immediately approached acting Chief Mvuthu and asked if they could assist in building a clinic to cut on distance and cost of accessing primary health care.
Construction started in 2015 as a partnership between Hwange Rural District Council and Buy-A-Brick Foundation and in 2019, Government availed Devolution Funds to complete the project.
The clinic has been christened Leona Clinic in honour of Ms Leona Sibanda, the survivor who is now 22 years old and has a two-year-old son. In most cases, structures such as buildings, roads and schools are named after individual icons after their death but for Ms Sibanda it’s a different tale as she is only 22 years old and alive.
Ms Sibanda has permanent scars on her right leg and as fate would have it, her left leg also has scars she sustained after she fell into a fire following an epileptic seizure some years after the buffalo attack.
A news crew visited the clinic yesterday and noticed that the main structure with two wards each with three beds, a maternity ward and an adjoining delivery wing with own ablution facilities, a consultation room, dispensary, storeroom, pharmacy, toilets and laundry are complete.
Four staff cottages each with four rooms are also complete.
Furniture and equipment is already on site.
A piece of land has been fenced to establish a nutritional garden while a solar powered borehole is already in place supplying both the community and nearby Vulindlela school.– @ncubeleon
Online Reporter