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ZiHAT seeks to provide assistance, in co-coordination with other entities, to develop, maintain and enhance the public health delivery system in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s once robust social services, such as healthcare, are in decline. This has been exacerbated by the AIDS epidemic and the considerable brain drain of skilled personnel including doctors and nurses. ZiHAT main activities will be: Fundraising, both financial and material, for distribution to Zimbabwe healthcare facilities and the functioning of the organization, Education and outreach about Zimbabwe’s healthcare needs to support the organization’s fundraising goals by making people aware of the problems the organization is working to solve.
Background Zimbabwe is in the midst of a serious humanitarian crisis. One of the major effects of this crisis is the collapse of the public health delivery system with very sad health consequences on ordinary Zimbabweans. Many hospitals, including the major central hospitals in Harare and peripheral clinics are closed. Each year, about 1,300 to 2,800 mothers die from causes associated with pregnancy and childbirth, and 12,000 people are estimated to die every month from AIDS-related illnesses. Most of these deaths are due to lack of access to drugs and essential equipment and other supplies in health facilities. The delivery of health care of these already overwhelmed health facilities has been further constrained by the recent devastating outbreak of cholera from which more than 50,000 people are now infected and approximately 3,000 people have died, according to the latest UN figures (as of end of January 2009). So join us in our efforts to respond to this current crisis. |
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