Zimbabwe Democracy Now.com
11 October 2010
Posted by Nxwala
My sister at home in Zimbabwe died and I had to go back home for her burial. I do not have money for the border so I had to go under the fence. I travelled to Lupane using my thumb and rural buses. When I got to St. Luke’s it was much worse than when I was last time there.
I think we must no longer call them government hospitals because the patients pay for almost everything: food, medicine, drip, injections, and beds and most of the people working there do not have a salary for the job at all. They depend on their children who are working in other countries especially South Africa. The government does not take responsibility for the supply of medication in government hospitals in fact money paid by the patients is used to buy hospital supply.
There are no ambulances in St Luke’s hospital in Lupane, even though it is the main hospital in Matabeleland north province. Those who get sick are transported to hospitals through scotch carts and many die before even reaching the hospital, others they do not even go to the hospital because they do not have the money to pay for the doctor, the utensils and the medication.
My family with me went to find my sister’s body and it was the worst. The hospital mortuary are stinking. The fridges in the mortuary are not powerful enough to freeze the body and corpses are not allowed to stay there for more than two days. Electricity can go off for two, three days and just imagine the fluid coming out of the mortuary. I witnessed this myself.
There is no doctor during weekends because there is only one doctor responsible for the whole hospital and I am sure he will be tired to work seven days a week. In fact he is an old family man and he needs to rest but he is still sacrificing his life to help the people. He works overtime from eight in the morning to eight or ten in the evening. If anything happens to him, maybe get sick or if he decide to resign it will be a big blow to the people needing services in that hospital. I do not think his replacement will be able to offer services as he is doing now. They are many people who are dying now due to the lack of services and shortage of doctors but the man is reducing the number (of deaths) by half.
If some non governmental organisation or interested individuals can lend a hand in St Luke’s hospital and help the situation they may save life, lots of them.
Also while I was visiting my rural family in Lupane they told me about the schools and the children who are missing education now.
Schools in rural areas have become a playing ground, I think right from the morning pupils go for PE, then break time, then lunch time and then they dismiss. This is happening everyday you can hardly find the children inside the classroom learning. Due to the decade of political suffering caused by state sponsored violence there are no books, classrooms have potholes and parents are suppose to buy books for their children which they cannot afford. The reason that makes them not afford is none of them are working and to get one American dollar in rural areas is very difficult.
The Minister of Education Honorable David Coltart has played a big role in the sourcing of school books especially for the primary schools but that is not enough because teachers are not teaching. They need the parents to pay them incentives and I know the parents do not have and the teachers won’t teach unless and until they get the money they want. They do not want to help the children’s future for nothing and their reason is valid but the children are compromised. I think the World Vision organization must also help in the educational sector because a country without education will never have a bright future.