By Virginia Njovo
Years of living in squalid conditions, sharing cramped and unsanitary quarters like mice have finally come to an end for nurses at Chiredzana Clinic, thanks to the recent completion of new housing units by SolidarMed.
A group of health care workers from the Clinic in ward 31 Zaka South, could not help but express their joy during the commissioning of the newly built staff quarters as they shared their horrible experiences described as ‘living like mice’ in the old houses that they shared.
Established in 1963 and serving over 90 villages with an estimated population of 13000, the clinic never had decent shelter for the staff as it only had two houses where six nurses and their families had to share over the years.
The houses started dilapidating and were no longer safe for the nurses as the responsible authorities failed to repair them until the intervention by SolidarMed to construct three more houses.
Speaking during the commissioning ceremony, one of the senior nurses who had been at the clinic for almost two decades, Felistuz Gwamuri said they lived like mice for decades sharing the two houses.
She said they ended up using some of the clinic wards as accommodation to minimise congestion in the dilapidated structures.
“The houses were not enough to accommodate us and our families. We ended up resolving that some nurses use a part of the clinic for accommodation to decongest the overwhelmed living quarters,” said Gwamuri.
Gwamuri said the houses were not only small but had become dangerous to live in, exposing them to snakes and other insects as well as harsh weather conditions.
“At one point I narrowly escaped a snake bite when I was sleeping in the house. The snake spat its venom on me and that is when I woke up to see a big snake in the ceiling. The other day my children escaped harm by a whisker after the ceiling fell on them while they were sleeping,” said Gwamuri.
She also said there was no personal privacy as they almost always ended up mixing work issues with personal issues.
“The way we lived was distressing as we did not even have personal privacy which is required for every human being,” she said.
Ward 31 councillor Tumai Madzikona thanked SolidarMed for the housing project and the community for its cooperation during the whole process up to the stage of commissioning.
“I want to appreciate the community for cooperating with our sponsors, throughout the whole process of the construction of staff houses. The situation was bad, these old houses were inadequate and substandard as some of them had broken doors and ceilings.
“The new quarters have saved the nursing staff from the ravaging storms that had been destroying structures across the district of late,” said Madzikona.
SolidaMed Project Coordinator Justin Mahuni said the staff house will improve staff retention and morale as their social life standards have been improved in a decent manner.
“The staff houses will help in improving staff retention as the standard of living is better than before. Their morale at work will be improved which will ultimately impact service delivery,” said Mahuni.
