BY SHARON BUWERIMWE ABOUT two million Zimbabweans have benefited from a maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) project sponsored China Aid.
Currently, the country’s health delivery system is a shamble due to a myriad of problems such as high staff turnover, poor infrastructure, lack of drugs and equipment and low staff morale.
A report released last week by the South-South Co-operation Assistance Fund (SSCAF) Zimbabwe Project, in collaboration with Unicef, said the Chinese funded project had scored a number of achievements in two pilot provinces, Matabeleland South and Mashonaland Central.
“The specific objective of the project was to improve access to quality MNCH interventions in Zimbabwe towards achieving health Sustainable Development Goals by achieving maternal mortality reduction from 651 per 100 000 live births to 300 per 100 000 live births and neonatal mortality from 29 deaths per 1 000 live births to 20 deaths per 1 000 live births by 2021,” reads the report.
Cumulatively, 1 741 251 people were reached under this project, and 57 176 pregnant women were referred to health facilities in 15 districts and a total of 447 138 children under five received growth monitoring; while 5 216 children with diarrhoea were appropriately treated by village health workers using ORS and Zinc at community level.
A total of 216 722 women and children were reached with integrated maternal, neonatal, child health and nutrition services at outreach points, while 1 020 215 families were reached with COVID-19 prevention messages during the reporting period.
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