CHINHOYI — Scores of Aids patients receiving antiretroviral therapy under the Home Based Care (HBC) programme from an HIV and Aids organisation, Batsirai Group, face a gloomy future amid reports the “Good Samaritans” are mulling to shut down following the withdrawal of their major financiers.
“There is no money to sustain HIV counselling and testing, behavioural change and prevention programmes. The situation is critical in that scores of Aids patients receiving ARV treatment and care under the HBC programme would be neglected and face painful deaths,” a health worker at the organisation, who requested anonymity, told NewsDay yesterday.
Also contributing to the woes of Batsirai Group was the untimely death of its director Daniel Gapare a fortnight ago, the sources said.
Deputy director Nyarai Shumba, however, sought to down-play the crisis her organisation was facing after the withdrawal of donors and Gapare’s death.
“I am not in a position to comment on the relationship with our funders. Anyway, does the death of a director entail an organisation ceases operations?”questioned Shumba, who refused to comment further.
Shumba is reportedly set to leave Batsirai Group to join its off-shoot organisation, the Beitbridge-based HIV and Aids project, Wellness Clinic, to assume the post of programmes supervisor, the source said.
Batsirai Group is said to have scaled-down operations in recent months after one of its major donors, United Nations Emergency Fund (Unicef), stopped funding and “impounded” vehicles over alleged financial impropriety and mismanagement.
The cash problems at the organisation has also manifested itself in the non-payment of workers’ salaries.
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The over 100 workers face uncertainty and are likely to institute legal action to recover their outstanding salaries and severance packages, said the sources.
