Wild4Life

Improving access to quality medical services for isolated communities in north western Zimbabwe's Binga and Lupane districts.

Across Zimbabwe, accessing medical services is difficult: there are only 1.6 physicians and 7.2 nurses to every 10,000 people. In poorly serviced rural areas where healthcare facilities are many miles from most communities, securing medical treatment and undergoing HIV testing is difficult and costly.

Wild4Life are improving the medical services that are available to people in isolated communities in north western Zimbabwe's Binga and Lupane districts, through a range of programmes aimed to strengthen existing healthcare structures.

Wild4Life work jointly with local organisations and District Health Executives to provide on-the-job mentoring for clinic staff and voluntary Village Health Workers (VHWs), support outreaches bringing primary healthcare services into remote villages, form community-based support groups for people with HIV and work with clinic management committees to increase their engagement.

Wild4Life's current project has also introduced a toll-free helpline to further enhance the support and mentoring of clinic staff, providing remote access to the expertise of professionals at other clinics outside of mentoring sessions – especially useful during complicated or emergency cases. Wild4Life also support clinics to run community dialogue sessions to educate villages on specific health issues and address barriers to healthcare uptake. An important part of these dialogues in the current project has been the inclusion of discussions which address and challenge prevailing gender inequalities and promote women’s health and wellbeing, particularly with the aim of improving maternal and newborn health.