Malaliya clinic, a new gem for Binga
Jane Nkiwane
BINGA – Community members of Malaliya, a village located about 150 km from Binga Centre are relieved and delighted to welcome a new positive development in their area. The erection of a new health centre, Malaliya Clinic is set to immensely improve the lives of the locals, who for long have had to endure gruelling long-distance walks of up to 15km just to access medical care from neighbouring Tinde and Kamativi.
According to Binga Rural District Engineer, Zibusiso Nyoni, the clinic is a brainchild of the Malaliya community members who initiated the project and raised funds to spearhead it. The determined community built the main clinic block and one staff cottage to gable level. When the community ran out of funds, the Binga District Council came to the rescue and took over the project by drawing from devolution funds.
Prior to the establishment of the clinic, the community faced a myriad of challenges related to difficulty in accessing health facilities. Soaring malaria cases during the rainy season accelerated the mortality rate and led to deaths that could have been avoided. Furthermore, some patients defaulted on their chronic disease treatments as they had no means of transport to ferry them to neighbouring community clinics which are more than 10km away.
An upbeat Nyoni posited that Malaliya Clinic will increase the life expectancy among residents and that the proximity of the health centre will ensure early detection, diagnosis and treatment of illnesses.
He added that the clinic comes as a breath of fresh air for vulnerable groups in the community who include nursing mothers, pregnant women and the elderly.
“It is my pleasure to point out that women from this community will also benefit a lot from this project as they will no longer walk long distances of more than 10km with babies strapped on their backs under the scorching sun to access medical care like maternity check-ups, delivery, and baby clinics. The elderly will not be left out as they will also receive vital basic life care and medical services from the clinic,” he said.
In addition to bringing medical relief, the clinic building project provided local people with employment opportunities which went a long way towards ameliorating the massive poverty levels in the area.
“This project provided economic empowerment to local people because during the implementation of the project there was need for skilled and unskilled workers, and as a result bricklayers, plumbers, electricians, and cleaners were hired locally,” said a visibly happy member of the community, Bernard Muleya.
Tapera Chamukwanda extended gratitude to everyone who took part in the project. He said that he is grateful and indebted to local people who exhibited unreserved commitment, sacrifice, and hard work. Chamukwanda also made a clarion call urging the community to keep up the same spirit in future development initiatives.
Turning to the disbursement of devolution funds that were critical to the completion of the clinic, Chamukwanda thanked the government for coming through for the community.
“As the Malaliya community we thank the government and His Excellency, our president for heeding our plight and offering his full support,” he said.
He also took the opportunity to implore the government to help the community establish a secondary school.
“Our children are still walking long distances to access secondary education, therefore our next development target as Malaliya residents is to set up a secondary school and hopefully the government will again lend us a helping hand to achieve the goal,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s devolution program is founded on the principle of empowering provincial government councils to start social and economic development programs in their areas of jurisdiction. Devolution was adopted as a key component of the new constitution of Zimbabwe in 2013.
