By Kuda Pembere
Amidst growing concern over the rise in drug and substances use cases in the country, the Zimbabwe Community Health Intervention Research Project (ZICHIRE), has launched a drop-in centre where youngsters get counselling and treatment.
In an interview on the side-lines of the International Men’s Day, ZICHIRE programmes manager Walter Chikanya said the celebrations were done at a time men should be taking a leading role in improved health seeking behaviours.
It is very important for men to be having good health-seeking behavior because there are so many diseases that then affect our day-to-day lives yet we are expected to be breadwinners. We’ve got quite a lot of roles that we play in our families.
“We also need to be supporting our counterparts. So even our children, they’re looking up to us, you know, the father in the house, you need to really be in good health. Your health is your money because when you’re healthy you’re able to work,” he said.
Chikanya said the drop-in centre dubbed Tigashire was opened through the support of the National AIDS Council.
“This is really an important day for us where we are saying we have opened up to young people to come and experience our Tigashire drop-in center, which has been supported greatly by National AIDS Council through the Brother to Brother program, an initiative that looks at mentorship of boys and young men,” he said. “We’ve got quite a number of activities also here within the center, where we’re looking within the drop-in center, we’re looking at game, board games, snooker.”
He added that the centre has interactive sessions and TV sessions.
“We also have access to computers. So we’re really hoping that, you know, if we open like this, we then create a safe space for men and also those who are using and injecting drugs to also come and experience a safe space where they can access sexual reproductive health and also other HIV and AIDS services,” said Chikanya.
Chikanya added that it was important to focus on the mental health of men as well as substance abuse which when neglected can lead to premature deaths and suicides.
“So this is very critical for us to come together and say, let’s discuss, let’s be open, let’s share our experiences and build a man of integrity, build a man who’s strong, who can support his counterpart and his family and also could also lead the nation,” he said.
