Media Home
UN Web TV
UN PhotoUnifeed
ZIMBABWE / HEALTHCARE
STORY: ZIMBABWE / HEALTHCARE
TRT 7:39
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: SHONA / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 7–12 April 2013, CHIVI DISTRICT, MASVINGO PROVINCE, ZIMBABWE
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Henry Madzorera, Minister of Health and Child welfare: “Things were so bad. Most health workers who wanted to go out of Zimbabwe had left. Drug supply had dried up completely.”
“The maternal mortality ratio just went up.”
2. Wide shot, Chivi District hospital sign
3. Various shots, shot, Dr Chagondah walking
4. Wide shot, Emergency Outpatients sign
5. Med shot, women waiting
6. Med shot, Dr Chagondah looking at patients file
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Emmanuel Chagondah, Chivi District Medical Officer:
“My name is Emmanuel Chagondah, I’m 29 years of age, I’ve been working at Chivi District Hospital for the past 11 months. When I arrived here I was working all by myself for the first five/ six months. It was hectic in between but it was a challenge in life. There was a lot of work to be done.”
8. Wide shot, various shots, operation in theatre
9. Wide shot, waiting mothers
10. Wide shot, Dr Chagondah talking at pediatric unit
11. Med shot, Dr Chagondah talking to Mercy Muchero
12. Close shot, Mercy’s baby
13. SOUNDBITE (Shona) Mercy Muchero, Pregnant Mother:
“As soon as we got to labour ward, the midwives took the baby and started to tend to me.”
14. Wide shot, Sister Catherine tending to patient
15. Close shot, Sister Catherine
16. Close shot, sign counseling and testing room
17. Med shot, nurse walking out of room
18. Wide shot, Sister Catherine walking in ward
19. Close shot, baby
20. Med shot, Sister Catherine tending to baby
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Sister Catherine Mariposa:
“As a professional you get so touched especially if you know that something could have been done and this death was avoidable. It’s so hurting.”
22. Wide shot, of mother tending to baby
23. Close shot, baby
24. Med shot, mother and baby
25.SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Aboubacar Kampo, Chief Young Child Survival & Development, UNICEF Zimbabwe:
“The main objective is to reduce maternal mortality at least by 70% and to reduce child to under 5 mortality by 36% until 2015.”
26. Med shot, health worker tending to patient
27. Close shot, health worker smiling
28. Close shot, laboratory clinician testing
29. Various shots, laboratory clinician testing and reading computer screen
30. SOUNDBITE (English) Sister Catherine Mariposa:
“Midwives were highly motivated by this fund and we hope it’s going to continue.”
31. Wide shot, Dr Chagondah in theatre
32. Med shot, empty drawer
33. Wide shot, storeroom
34. Wide shot, health worker writing in book
35. Med shot, health worker checking boy
36. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Emmanuel Chagondah, Chivi District Medical Officer:
“The biggest challenge is health education of the mothers. Saying “ you should be confident with your institutions, come to the institution and have deliveries.”
37. Med shot, breastfeeding mother
38. Close shot, baby breastfeeding
39. Wide shot, mothers waiting
40. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Henry Madzorera, Minister of Health and child welfare:
“Women and children are no longer being charged and that means access has been improved. That means we are going to deal effectively with the issue of maternal and neonatal child mortality.”
41. Wide shot, health workers tending to newborns
42. Med shot, Anna Mungara tending to newborn
43. Close shot, Anna Mungara tending to newborn
44. SOUNDBITE (English) Anna Mungara, Midwife in training:
“I had some difficulties in conducting some deliveries so I applied for midwifery so that I can be trained and have the skills so that I can conduct the deliveries and promote safe deliveries so that the maternal and morbidity rate will become low.”
45. Wide shot, Dr Chagondah tending to patient
46. Med shot, Dr Chagondah tending to patient
47. Wide shot, mountains
48. Wide shot, Madamombe sign
49. Med shot, chickens
50. Wide shot, Village Health workers greeting Senzeni
51. Close shot, Senzeni
52. Med shot, VHW talking to Senzeni
53. Med shot, “Waiting mothers” sign
54. Wide shot, “Waiting mothers” sign
55. SOUNDBITE (Shona) Senzeni Kwangware, Mother:
“The Village Health Worker, they come regularly to check on us and to give us advice on how to take care of ourselves and let us know when we should go to the hospital. And that’s why the last time I was overdue because there was no one to tell me it was time to go to the hospital.”
56. Close shot, baby
57. Wide shot, mothers in queue
58. SOUNDBITE ( English) Aldo Dell’Ariccia, EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe:
“I think that a transition period is meant to help the government to assume its responsibility – it’s not something you can do from one day to the other. There are still issues, in particular in reference to the revenues of some of the important sectors in the country that have to be clarified or improved and that would permit the government to have more resources in order to face its responsibilities. It’s a long process. I’m not sure that the day after tomorrow we will be there but important thing is that we are progressing towards that goal”
59. Wide shot, Dr Chagondah in ward
60. Wide shot, Dr Chagondah walking
61. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Emmanual Chagondah, Chivi District Medical Officer:
“¬¬The most satisfying thing about the nature of my job is to see someone smiling again.”
62. Wide shot, Dr Chagondah with Mercy Muchero
63. Med shot, Mercy Muchero
In 2008, Zimbabwe's healthcare sector virtually collapsed due to an economic and political crisis
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Henry Madzorera, Minister of Health and Child Welfare:
“Things were so bad. Most health workers who wanted to go out of Zimbabwe, had left.
Drug supply had dried up completely. The maternal mortality ratio just went up.”
The Health Transition Fund: Rebuilding Zimbabwe’s Healthcare Sector
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Emmanual Chagondah, Chivi District Medical Officer:
“My name is Dr. Emmanuel Chagondah. I’m 29 years of age, I’ve been working at Chivi District Hospital for the past 11 months. When I arrived here I was working all by myself for the first five/ six months. It was hectic in between but it was a challenge in life. There was a lot of work to be done.”
Chivi district Hospital is a referral hospital for some 18 rural clinics in the southern Zimbabwean province of Masvingo. Most of the patients are women and children.
For three years before Dr Chagondah was appointed, there was no doctor here. Now there are two with a third on the way.
In the maternity ward, Dr Chagondah checks in on one his patients Mercy Muchero. She was admitted yesterday after she was forced to give birth on the side of the road while on her way to the clinic. During birth her uterus prolapsed and she was in dire need of medical attention.
SOUNDBITE (Shona) Mercy Muchero, Mother:
“As soon as we got to labour ward, the midwives took the baby and started to tend to me.”
A few years ago when conditions in the health sector were at their lowest, Mercy may not have been so lucky to have found skilled health workers attending to her.
An economic crisis, which peaked in 2008, brought the healthcare sector to a standstill, forcing hospitals to close their doors and thousands of healthcare professionals to flee the country in search of work.
As a result maternal mortality jumped three-fold from what it was in 1990. Infant and child mortality also shot up dramatically.
Sister Catherine Mariposa, who has been at the hospital since 2003, remembers those dark days:
SOUNDBITE (English) Sister Catherine Mariposa:
“As a professional you get so touched especially if you know that something could have been done and this death was avoidable. It’s so hurting”
To bring these mortality rates under control and revitalize the ailing health sector, the government together with the international donor community including the European Union and UNICEF created a health transition fund
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Aboubacar Kampo, Chief Young Child Survival & Development, UNICEF Zimbabwe:
“The main objective is to reduce maternal mortality at least by 70% and to reduce child to under 5 mortality by 36 percent until 2015.”
One of the main goals of the Health Transition Fund is to make sure that there are doctors and nurses in all hospitals and clinics, especially in the rural areas. To help incentivize professionals, salaries are topped up and health centres have access to basic supplies and medicine, provided by the Health Transition Fund.
SOUNDBITE (English) Sister Catherine Mariposa:
“Midwives were highly motivated by this fund and we hope it’s going to continue.”
But years of underinvestment in the sector are evident. And Chivi district hospital is no exception. Broken and outdated equipment and lack of water and electricity provide huge challenges for healthcare workers. And recruiting skilled staff takes time. But so does restoring confidence in the people.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Emmanual Chagondah, Chivi District Medical Officer:
“The biggest challenge is health education of the mothers. Saying “you should be confident with your institutions, come to the institution and have deliveries.”
A new policy to remove user fees for pregnant and lactating women and children under five will prove a welcome boost to the number of women accessing health centres.
SOUNDBITE: (English) Dr. Henry Madzorera, Minister of Health and child welfare:
“Women and children are no longer being charged and that means access has been improved. That means we are going to deal effectively with maternal and neonatal child mortality.”
To improve skills and alleviate pressure on already strained resources especially in district and provincial hospitals -- hundreds of nurses from rural clinics (in particular) like Anna Mungara are being trained as midwifes.
SOUNDBITE (English) Anna Mungara, Midwife in training:
“I had some difficulties in conducting some deliveries so I applied for midwifery so that I can be trained and have knowledge and the skills so that I can conduct the deliveries and promote safe deliveries so that the maternal and morbidity rate will become low.”
This is sure to help restore confidence by allowing pregnant women to get quality service wherever they are from the word ‘go’.
In addition, the Health Transition Fund is making sure that pregnant women receive the guidance and care of village health workers who them throughout their pregnancy and encourage them to move closer to their local clinic when their due date is near.
SOUNDBITE (Shona) Senzeni Kwangware, pregnant mother:
“The Village Health Worker, they come regularly to check on us and to give us advice on how to take care of ourselves and let us know when we should go to the hospital. And that’s why the last time I was overdue because there was no one to tell me it was time to go to the hospital.”
Restoring these vital building blocks of Zimbabwe’s health sector does not happen overnight. But the hope is that these efforts will have a long-lasting impact.
SOUNDBITE (English) Aldo Dell’ Ariccia, EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe:
“I think that a transition period is meant to help the government to assume its responsibility – it’s not something you can do from one day to the other. There are still issues, in particular in reference to the revenues of some of the important sectors in the country that have to be clarified or improved and that would permit the government to have more resources in order to face its responsibilities. It’s a long process. I’m not sure that the day after tomorrow we will be there but important thing is that we are progressing towards that goal”
Back at Chivi District hospital, Dr Chagondah finishing his rounds. Tomorrow he must start at the 18 rural clinics he also services. It is a tireless job and the reward is humbling.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Emmanual Chagondah, Chivi District Medical Officer:
“¬¬The most satisfying thing about the nature of my job is to see someone smiling again.”
Download
There is no media available to download.
