Matobo Villagers Mobilize to Halt Covid-19

by Themba Sibanda

MATOBO — The emergence of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has prompted villagers to self-mobilize to halt the spread of the disease following a grim reality that expecting the central government to help the community ward off the pandemic is expecting too much from an administration that has failed them in the last 40 years.

Descent Collins Bajila, the chairperson of the Matobo Community Covid-19 response initiative said the people of Matobo, working with friends and relatives outside the country, have decided to fight the pandemic as a community. 

“The community of Matobo is making preparations for the expansion of a citizens’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic,” Bajila told The Citizen Bulletin in an interview this week.

Community members, Bajila added, have come together in loose associations in a bid to pool resources that will be distributed throughout the 18 health centers that are dotted around the district.

“We want to ensure that each of these 18 centers is able to at least handle Covid-19-related issues as and when they arise,” Bajila said.

Information is a key and vital cog in the fight against the pandemic, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This is information that conscientizes the people of what the Covid-19 ailment is all about and how those affected and infected with it should be able to deal with. It is against this background that the Matobo community initiative believes its campaign, going forward, will have to be anchored on information dissemination.

“We want to ensure that we intensify the information dissemination to as far as possible in Matobo so that our people are well informed about the disease. We want to also, after disseminating information, ensure that these centers also have access to basics such as equipment for the checking of temperatures, they have hand sanitizers, they also have protective equipment for the workers or health personnel,” Bajila said.

According to Bajila, the Matobo initiative has brought together eminent persons from the area who are now leaders of various organizations and institutions across Zimbabwe and abroad.

Some of the people involved in the initiative include former vice president of the Affirmative Action Group (AAG) Sam Ncube, prominent Bulawayo lawyer, Robert Ndlovu and human rights defender, Matshobana Ncube, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission southern region officials, and some who hail from the district but are based in the diaspora.

“We aim to create systems that are sufficient to respond to the pandemic in the length and breadth of the district. We appreciate that the health personnel we have in the district have dedicated themselves to helping the community fight off this pandemic.

“But we also note that they can’t do the work without the essentials. If we can’t get them from the government, we, as a local community have to come together and work on such initiatives to raise the necessary equipment to help them help the community,” Bajila said.

He added: “We are cognizant of the fact that there are health centers in areas such as Bulawayo that have been designated for Covid-19. Our bid is to ensure that our people are prepared for admission at the main centers in the event that their situation gets worse, hence the initiative.”

The initiative is expected to decongest referral health facilities in Bulawayo while empowering local health centers in Matobo to handle mild COVID-19 cases, including treatment for severe cases.