New clinic for Chasiyatende

Kennedy Murwira

Chivi – Chivi Rural District Council, with the assistance of Vision Trust, a non-governmental organisation with an interest in health afairs, is building a new community clinic in the Chasiyatende area.

The clinic, which is expected to be complete before the end of the year, will service a large number of villagers most of whom are struggling with poor access to health services. 

Speaking to TellZim News, Chivi RDC Chief Executive Officer, Tariro Matavire, said the decision to build the clinic came after the realisation that members of the community were walking long distances to the nearest health facility.

“The nearest health facilities are at Razi and Ngundu which are approximately 15 kilometres and 25 kilometres away respectively. Construction of Chasiyatende Clinic started early last year and it is almost complete.

“Two of the staff houses are near completion while construction work on the third has already started,” Matavire said, adding that the clinic should be ready for use by the end of the year.

“During construction of the clinic the community provided the bricks, labour and food and accommodation for the builders who came from the Headquarters 4 Brigade Construction Unit. Vision Trust provided the cement and all related building materials while council co-ordinated the periodic inspections from the health and public construction ministries,” said Matavire.

He said it was the council’s hope that the new clinic will improve health service delivery in the area while also impacting positively on economic growth.

“The community endured long distances to the nearest health facilities and this affected economic activity while expectant mothers sometimes failed to attend the pre-natal clinic. This went on after giving birth as mothers skipped vaccinations due to the distances involved. 

“The opening of the clinic should improve service delivery while giving the community more time to spend on their economic activities,” he said.

Matavire added that the improvement in service delivery should see a reduction in the prevalence of diseases in an area which, he said, has an acute shortage of transport to ferry the sick to hospital.