Teen Pregnancies and Early Marriages Rear Ugly Head in Zim’s Farming Communities

Michael Gwarisa

IT’S a normal day inside Sable Ranch, a farming community at least 6 kilometers outside Marondera town in Mashonaland East province. Since its tobacco planting season, majority of labourers have been sent on a two-week long leave to give the tobacco plant enough time to grow. Just like their parents, school children at Ranch Farm and other surrounding farming communities are attending school just twice every week to adhere to government set COVID-19 prevention protocols. By Michael Gwarisa recently in Marondera, Mashonaland East While the adults have capitalized on the…

Read More

Zimbabwe Red Cross Holds NCDs Awareness Schools Competition

Michael Gwarisa

THE Zimbabwe Red Cross Society has successfully hosted the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) Arts Festival with the aim of raising awareness and teaching children on the dangers of leading sedentary lifestyles and adopting dangerous habits that could lead to a high NCDs burden in the future. By Michael Gwarisa The competitions were in two phase with the provincial competitions having been held first followed by the national competitions for those who would have won the provincial competitions. There were five categories which saw pupils from various schools battling it out in…

Read More

Restart Whole Vaccination Process, COVAXIN Recipients Told

Patricia Mashiri

THE COVID-19 Chief Coordinator in the President’s Office, Dr Agness Mahomva has urged Zimbabweans who received their first jabs of COVAXIN vaccine but failed to get their second doses to start afresh with a different one. By Patricia Mashiri She made this plea following indications that thousands of people who received their first doses of the COVAXIN vaccine in May and June when Zimbabwe received its shipment of 35,000 doses from India are yet to get their second jabs five months down the line. Speaking during a Science Cafe, Dr…

Read More

Capacity Woes Hinder Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Rollout in Zim

Michael Gwarisa

COLD chain and logistical issues could hinder Zimbabwe’s plans to deploy and administer the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine in the short distant future, a top health official has said. By Michael Gwarisa The development comes at the back of indications that the Southern African country also encountered capacity challenges during their rollout of the Russian manufactured Sputnik-V vaccine which is a viral vector vaccine just like the Johnson & Johnson jab. Speaking during a Media Café that was organized by the Health Communicators Forum of Zimbabwe (HCFZ) in…

Read More

Ruwa Springvale Residents Go For 9 Years Without Running Water

Michael Gwarisa

…ZB Holdings Say they have done their part …Ruwa Local Board mum on the matter RESIDENTS under Springvale, a ZB Financial Holdings Housing project in Ruwa have gone for close to a decade without running tap water, a situation that might soon expose residents to health hazards as some are now getting water from shallow wells and other alternative water sources. By Michael Gwarisa A visit to Springvale revealed that some residents were now being forced to fork out huge amounts of money to install boreholes and water tanks at…

Read More

SOUTH AFRICA: As time runs out to break ‘TRIPS Waiver’ stalemate, protesters at US & EU embassies in South Africa warn “The whole world is watching you.”

Michael Gwarisa

AS governments prepare to discuss the ‘TRIPS Waiver’ at the World Trade Organization (WTO) this week, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), along with treatment activists and civil society organisations, protested today outside the embassies of Belgium, the Netherlands and the US in Tshwane, the executive capital of South Africa, calling on these governments to break the impasse and fast-track the negotiations on the TRIPS Waiver so it is adopted at the upcoming WTO Ministerial Conference at the end of November. The groups also urged the US to play a more proactive…

Read More

ZWMB Partners Youth Engage To Provide Loans To Young Women

Patricia Mashiri

ZIMBABWE Women Microfinance Bank (ZWMB) has partnered with Youth Engage, a grassroots focused organization that advocates for the health of young people in their diversity to give financial freedom to  young women and girls. By Patricia Mashiri The Bank empowers women economically and socially by providing access to affordable and innovative women-centered financial products and services. It also assists young women in their individual capacity, in groups/clubs/cooperatives or as micro, small, and medium enterprises. Speaking to HealthTimes, Ms Barbara Muyengwa, Head of Marketing and Public Relations ZWMB said they decided…

Read More

#BREAKING: City Of Harare Closes 9 Clinics As Nurses Desert For Greener Pastures

Michael Gwarisa

THE past few months have seen hundreds of healthcare workers especially nurses resigning en masse from Harare City Council run clinics, leading to the closure of at least nine clinics around the city. By Michael Gwarisa The exodus of nurses has to a larger extent been driven by the deteriorating working conditions and poor remuneration, a situation which has pushed nurses to join local Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) while some have moved abroad where demand for healthcare workers is also on the rise. In July, the City of Harare reported that…

Read More

United States Government’s Interventions See Rujeko Polyclinic Surpassing HIV Targets

Michael Gwarisa

RUJEKO Polyclinic, a council primary health care facility in Dzivarasekwa, Harare has through interventions from the United States Government (USG) attained 68% Viral Load Coverage (VLC), 96% viral suppression levels as well as increase access to Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) to not less than 5039 people living with HIV around its catchment area. By Michael Gwarisa The Polyclinic’s catchment area has a total population of 88, 271 consisting of mostly low income and poor communities and HIV programs at Rujeko Polyclinic are being supported mainly by the U.S President’ Plan for…

Read More

Male Breast Cancer Accounts For 0.9% In Zimbabwean Men

Patricia Mashiri

HOSPICE and Palliative Care Association of Zimbabwe (HOSPAZ), an organization that deals with palliative care for cancer, TB, HIV and other communicable and non-communicable diseases have warned that men were not excluded from developing breast cancer and should always be on the lookout for signs and symptoms of the disease. By Patricia Mashiri The call also comes in the month when the world is commemorating breast cancer awareness month which is running under the theme Budding Up With One Another Because No One Should Fight Cancer Alone. Speaking to HealthTimes…

Read More