VILLAGERS in Gwanda rural have been left stranded as a
clinic in their area has shutdown due to a goblin scare.
Nurses at the rural health centre, Silikwe Clinic, have
since downed their tools out of fear of being terrorised by the goblins.
The area’s village head, Mr Dickson Dube said nurses
vacated staff cottages and were reporting for work once a week.
He said villagers were now struggling to access health care
services. Mr Dube said it was about two weeks since the nurses vacated the
clinic.
“The community is now faced with a serious challenge as
Silikwe Clinic is now closed. I’m saying it’s closed because most of the time
the staff won’t be around. There are three female nurses stationed at the
clinic and they are now staying in Gwanda Town. They are transported from
Gwanda Town to the clinic located about 40 kilometres away by a Ministry of
Health vehicle and back. However, they don’t come every day and of late they
have been coming on Wednesdays only,” he said.
“The nurses reported to us that there are some goblins that
were terrorising them at night while they were sleeping which forced them to
vacate the staff cottages.
“According to the nurses, when they wake up every morning
they would feel violated sexually. They said this situation had persisted for
the past month.”
Mr Dube said villagers were now struggling to access
medication as the clinic was closed most of the time. He said some villagers
could not afford to travel to Gwanda Town for health services.
He said there was an urgent need for the matter to be
resolved so that the clinic would be fully operational once again.
Mr Dube said Chief Masuku, whose area of jurisdiction
covers the clinic, will hold a meeting with community members on Monday next
week to deliberate on the matter.
“There are some villagers who are on ARVs who are supposed
to get their medication at specific times but they are not because the clinic
is closed.
“There are people with different conditions that need
medication urgently, pregnant women need to be attended and children need to be
vaccinated among other situations.
“We are now stranded as a community,” he said. Ward 2
councillor, Ms Zwelibanzi Mpofu said five villages rely on this clinic.
She said she received a report from the nurses about the
challenges that they were facing early last month.
Ms Mpofu said nurses reported that goblins had terrorised
them for some time now but the situation worsened a month ago.
Ward 1 councillor Mr Stanford Nkala also said five villages
from his area also relied on the clinic.
Chief Masuku said he had received a report on the situation
at the clinic and he was yet to visit the health centre to have an appreciation
of the challenge that was being faced. Chronicle
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