Years of living in squalid conditions, sharing cramped and unsanitary quarters like mice have finally come to an end for nurses at Chiredzana Clinic, thanks to the recent completion of new housing units by Solidar Med.
A group of health care workers from the Clinic in ward 31
Zaka South, could not help but express their joy during the commissioning of
the newly built staff quarters as they shared their horrible experiences
described as ‘living like mice’ in the old houses that they shared.
Established in 1963 and serving over 90 villages with an
estimated population of 13000, the clinic never had decent shelter for the
staff as it only had two houses where six nurses and their families had to
share over the years.
The houses started dilapidating and were no longer safe for
the nurses as the responsible authorities failed to repair them until the
intervention by Solidar-Med to construct three more houses.
Speaking during the commissioning ceremony, one of the senior nurses who had been at the clinic for almost two decades, Felistuz Gwamuri said they lived like mice for decades sharing the two houses.
She said they ended up using some of the clinic wards as
accommodation to minimise congestion in the dilapidated structures.
“The houses were not enough to accommodate us and our
families. We ended up resolving that some nurses use a part of the clinic for
accommodation to decongest the overwhelmed living quarters,” said Gwamuri.
Gwamuri said the houses were not only small but had become
dangerous to live in, exposing them to snakes and other insects as well as
harsh weather conditions.
“At one point I narrowly escaped a snake bite when I was
sleeping in the house. The snake spat its venom on me and that is when I woke
up to see a big snake in the ceiling. The other day my children escaped harm by
a whisker after the ceiling fell on them while they were sleeping,” said
Gwamuri.
She also said there was no personal privacy as they almost
always ended up mixing work issues with personal issues.
“The way we lived was distressing as we did not even have
personal privacy which is required for every human being,” she said.
Ward 31 councillor Tumai Madzikona thanked Solidar-Med for
the housing project and the community for its cooperation during the whole
process up to the stage of commissioning.
“I want to appreciate the community for cooperating with
our sponsors, throughout the whole process of the construction of staff houses.
The situation was bad, these old houses were inadequate and substandard as some
of them had broken doors and ceilings.
“The new quarters have saved the nursing staff from the
ravaging storms that had been destroying structures across the district of
late,” said Madzikona.
SolidaMed Project Coordinator Justin Mahuni said the staff
house will improve staff retention and morale as their social life standards
have been improved in a decent manner.
“The staff houses will help in improving staff retention as
the standard of living is better than before. Their morale at work will be
improved which will ultimately impact service delivery,” said Mahuni.
TellZimNews
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