Reference :
V-P-ZW-E-00106
Date :
11/2010
Caption :
Masvingo province, Chivi district, Berejena, clinic. Women came back at the shelter for pegnant women after fetching water from a borehole in the village.
Confidentiality level :
public
Publication restrictions :
publication without restrictions
Description :
From 2006 to beginning of 2010, the ICRC has assisted 11 rural clinics in two districts of southern Zimbabwe: 6 in Chivi district and 5 in Tsholotsho district, in Matebeleland North.
The assistance consisted mainly in distribution of essential drugs, medical material, stationery and furniture.
The Water and Habitat department also participated to the assitance: rehabilitation of water networks, building of a waste management area with an incinerator, an organic pit and an ashes pit.
When it was decided to finish the assistance in the first months of 2010, the ICRC rehabilitated the existing shelters for pregnant women to safely wait for delivery in the last days of their pregnancy on the premises of the clinic, where nurses are available in case of complications.
A number of women in the region tend to deliver home, or to go to the clinic at the last minutes, which results in regular (althought not frequent) incidents and complications.
Such shelters in the clinic premises allow to reduce the risks of complications for mothers delivering. They provide a safer environment for pregnant women, which prompted the ICRC to invest in their rehabilitation: repairs of cracked walls, windows and doors, painting, repair/change of roofs.
Those shelters were mostly built in the 1960's and were in a very battered state when ICRC decided to rehabilitate them.
The rehabilitation works were completed by end of June 2010.
In the clinics of Razi and Berejena, in Chivi district around 800 women deliver each year (300 in Razi, 500 in Berejena). Around 65 per cent of pregnant women use the shelters. Razo shelter hosts around 4 women each week, while around 6 per week use the Berejena shelter.
Original material :
digital
Resolution :
4200x2800
Orientation :
landscape
Colour/B&W :
colour
