Electricity benefitting a medical clinic
Loading...
Authors
Annie Halliman
Issue Date
2016-04
Type
Language
en
Keywords
Energy
Alternative Title
Abstract
Practical Action's Sustainable Energy 4 Rural Communities (SE4RC) project is providing access to modern energy services in poor and remote locations in Zimbabwe. Priscilla Mano is a nurse at the Mashaba Clinic in the Gwanda District of Zimbabwe. She has 2 children who were born at the clinic. She explained that "the project has meant that we now have a fridge for storing vaccines, Oxytocin and HIV medicines. There is a maternity ward with a delivery room. We deliver 4 babies a month here and were initially using candles and cellphones for lighting at night. Mothers stay for 2 weeks before delivery and go home 3 days after. The waiting mothers also stay in the delivery room, we are improvising as we do not currently have a waiting mother’s shelter. If there are complications, we refer patients to the next hospital." "There are 3 nurses that work here but no midwives so we have all upskilled to deliver babies. It did not feel good to deliver my own children by candlelight but they were not complicated deliveries." "I have been a nurse for 8 years. I have always wanted to be a nurse, I have always had the ambition to help people. I look forward to studying more as I am currently only doing primary care medicine. We have 18-20 patients a day as well as family planning and HIV testing. We also manage the stock and administration of the clinic." "The most common illnesses are acute respiratory infections, especially with cold weather. This clinic serves nearly 6,000 people who live up to 13km away. We are open from 8am-4pm but live on site so are always here for emergencies such as scorpion stings and maternity services." The clinic has benefitted from electricity sourced from the Mashaba solar farm. Practical Action's Sustainable Energy 4 Rural Communities project has provided access to modern energy services for people in poor and remote locations in Zimbabwe.