People Living With HIV Hail Zim-TTECH

Bindura Bureau
Health centres across Mashonaland Central are offering Anti-retroviral treatment (ART) services, however, the distance to these centres remains a serious obstacle to accessing them, especially in the rural and remote districts of Mbire, lower Muzarabani and Mt Darwin, Nhau/Indaba has learnt.

In some instances patients walk over 30km one way to receive their drugs resulting in deaths that could have been prevented had it been that the government managed to honour its promise to establish clinics after four (4) km in rural communities during the Robert Mugabe era.

However, to achieve this milestone, the new dispensation has started the construction of mini-clinics to be manned by primary healthcare nurses in these remote communities.

The new dispensation is also easing the burden of these villagers by having outreach programmes supported by a few people-oriented non-governmental health organisations.

Zimbabwe Technical Assistance, Training and Education for Health (ZIM-TTECH) is one of the locally-based organisations currently operating within the province in Guruve, Mbire, Mt Darwin and Muzarabani districts.

It is a locally registered health trust established by experienced and passionate public health professionals who have a demonstrated track record in improving clinical services and revitalising health systems. They have nurses seconded to all health centres in these districts who will also be providing HIV/TB testing, counselling and medication.

This initiative has since received thunderous applause from members of the communities for their provision of extended outreach services that are now reaching schools, business centres or any other place they may deem fit.

Sarah Chimoto who accords herself as a veteran ART patient, said the outreach programmes have managed to eradicate HIV and related deaths in her community, Ward 24 Mt Darwin, ever since they were introduced during the COVID era.

Chimoto testified that before the introduction of the programme, she would walk 10km to Kamutsenzere clinic for medication and about 60km to Karanda Mission hospital from her home in Kapiripiri, Mt Darwin before the government decentralised the ART programme to all health centres around 2005.

“The distance barrier saw me witnessing two of my friends who were HIV-positive dying. I buried them with my own bare hands after the community said they could not bury them. Because of the stigma, men from the community only helped me with digging their two graves and left me to put them inside on my own saying they could not afford to be in contact with a person with HIV.

“I will never forget that day, the two died due to hunger while their viral loads had also shot. Imagine we would walk for nearly 60km on foot, following the main road with no shortcuts just to acquire ART. I really want to thank the government for decentralising the services but, at the same time appealing for a clinic here at Kapiripiri,” she said.

Chimoto hailed ZIM TTECH for its outreach programmes which are augmenting the Ministry of Health and Child Care in its fight to eradicate new HIV infections and deaths.

She said since ZIMTTECH started the outreach programme, about 150 people living with HIV in the ward have zero detectable viral loads. They are all on medication and have experienced zero HIV-related deaths.

Chimoto added that women i the area have all been cleared from having signs of cervical cancer.

Abisha Jonga a senior programmes officer at ZIMTTECH said the organisation considered transport and financial woes faced by the community to implement the initiative.

“People expect patients to visit the clinic but, we saw it fit to visit them cognisant of their financial woes and transport problems to reach Kamutsenzere. We now have a calendar to which we have set dates for these outreaches so that we help the community get their medication. We are also into TB prevention, testing and treatment,” he said.

In Mbire Sapa, Last Chiropa who has been living with HIV since 2014 but defaulted on medication from then until 2020 said he is walking 30 km towards the Chidodo border post to get his ART supply.

He said the closest clinic to his homestead is 17km away in Masomo.

Cloudious Musandaera, the National AIDS Council (NAC) Mbire district coordinator confirmed the distances and appealed for the establishment of a clinic in Sapa.

He said despite Zim-TTECH having outreach programmes, they were still not enough to address the dire situation.

Zim-TTECH was established out of the University of Washington’s International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) which has been working in Zimbabwe since 2003.

Throughout the years, I-TECH contributed significantly to Zimbabwe’s national response to the HIV epidemic and progress toward achieving HIV epidemic control.

I-TECH, with PEPFAR funding administered by US Centers for Disease Control, (CDC) formed a consortium, named the Zimbabwe Partnership to Accelerate AIDS Control (ZimPAAC)

It supported the formation of Zim-TTECH which serves as the managing partner for the ZimPAAC Consortium.

ZimPAAC works to rapidly expand comprehensive HIV services towards epidemic control by implementing effective, evidence-based strategies, aimed at addressing key gaps along the continuum of care (95-95-95) for all sub-populations. Nhau/Indaba