Direct Relief's Activities in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is located in southern Africa between South Africa and Zambia. Its HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is one of the fourth highest in the world with as many as 27.8 percent of the population under 50 infected. Of children under age 5, 40.6 die from HIV/AIDS.
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Zimbabwe’s life expectancy is one of the lowest in the world at 43 years, with a mortality rate of 751 per 1,000 people.
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Eighty-three percent of its population of 12.4 million lives on less than US $2 per day. Forty-seven percent lack sustainable access to safe sanitation and 19 percent of the rural population lack sustainable access to improved water supplies.
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Direct Relief has provided over $13.3 million (wholesale) in medical material assistance to Zimbabwe since 2000, focusing on maternal child health and core medical and surgical supplies. Read about Direct Relief's response to the 2008 health crisis in Zimbabwe.
Direct Relief’s key partners in Zimbabwe include Harare Central Hospital and the J.F. Kapnek Charitable Trust. Harare Central Hospital is a 1,079-bed facility that provides a full spectrum of curative and preventative hospital services. Harare Central was chosen to be a recipient of a surgical suite from Direct Relief based upon an assessment of the capabilities of its staff and the potential of its facilities. The new surgical supplies will be instrumental in the hospital’s efforts to to decrease maternal and child mortality and to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The J.F. Kapnek Charitable Trust is a U.S.-based nonprofit devoted to improving health in Southern Africa.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Health and through the support of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, its program to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV has facilitated PMTCT services at 160 clinical sites around the country to over 35,000 women. Through generous donations by MedPharm, Direct Relief assistance has provided the drug sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, which treats secondary opportunistic infections that often plague those infected with HIV. Since January 2008, Direct Relief has provided antiretroviral therapy to treat 3,905 HIV-positive people, a program the organization hopes to expand as funds become available.
Island Hospice, founded in 1979, is the oldest palliative care organization in Africa. It has a catchment area of 3 million people around Harare and Ghitungwiza, and is actively caring for approximately 3,000 patients at any one time. Island Hospice is primarily engaged in palliative care services, including pain- and symptom management, care of the dying, pediatric palliative care—often training children to care for their sick parent(s)—bereavement services and counseling, and HIV/AIDS training. Direct Relief began supporting Island Hospice in 2006 and has provided needed supplies and medicines on an ongoing basis.
Seke Rural Hospice was founded in 2001 to improve the quality of life for those affected by HIV/AIDS, the terminally and chronically ill, and orphans and vulnerable children living in the rural areas around Harare. It has a catchment area of approximately 80,000 people and provides home-based services to 5,000 patients. Seke Rural Hospice trains primary caregivers in the home and secondary caregivers in the village. Ten-day seminars and follow-up courses offer instruction in pain- and infection control in the very sick, often bedridden patients. Each volunteer carries simple, necessary supplies including gloves, bleach, soap, antiseptic, mattress cover, and sheets as part of their protocol.
Featured Work
Living With HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe
Between 1990 and 2002, healthy life expectancy for people in Zimbabwe plummeted from 61 to 34 years. This precipitous decline can be traced primarily to one source; the prevalence of HIV/AIDS.
More » Direct Relief's Partners in Zimbabwe
Harare Central HospitalHoward Hospital
Island HospiceJ.F. Kapnek Charitable Trust
Ministry of Health and Child Welfare
Population Services Zimbabwe
Seke Rural HospiceUnited Methodist Church Hospices