The Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development has started outreach meetings aimed at sensitising women farmers and traders on the effectiveness of herbs in the fight against HIV and Aids.
Addressing one of the meetings at Mhlahlandlela Government Complex in Bulawayo yesterday, Newton Mudzingwa, the Bulawayo Aids Institute manager, said doctors encouraged people “not to mix drugs and herbs”.
“People can now deal with these diseases in a natural way,” he said.
“Herbalists sometimes do not heal people, but they just give herbs that boost the immune system to make a person who is ill comfortable.”
Ntando Mhlanga, the ministry’s Mzilikazi district development officer, said this was “a legal literacy workshop for our stakeholders of things that affect them in their marriages so that they become literate about the laws”.
“The women farmers and women in trade requested a workshop. Women in trade who travel a lot become susceptible to HIV,” he said. “If they are educated and know that they have Aids, then they can know the way forward to get treatment.”
One of the participants at the workshop, Bongani Mpofu, from Luveve high-density suburb, said the outreach meeting had benefited them a lot.
“I have learnt a lot about herbs. Our culture has been lost because herbs are said not to work, but herbalists are saying these herbs help clean the blood stream,” she said.
