- The beginnings of Hope Zimbabwe, vision and focus areas
- Celebration Health
- Champions for Life
- Christian Medical Fellowship Zimbabwe (CMFZ)
1. The beginnings of Hope Zimbabwe, vision and focus areas
In the latter half of 2008, Australian Christian Medical colleagues received a plea for help to aid in the cholera epidemic of Zimbabwe from the International Christian Medical and Dental Association (ICMDA) which had launched an appeal in support of the devastating plight of the people of Zimbabwe.
The ICMDA appeal was directed towards enabling students and graduates of the Christian Medical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (CMFZ) to medically treat and care for their fellow Zimbabweans in hospitals, clinics and Cholera Treatment Centres.
HealthServe Australia responded to this appeal by forming a cholera epidemic tax-deductible fund with proceeds being sent via the ICMDA in South Africa and where along with other sponsors from around the world, Celebration Health was able to treat 15,000 cholera sufferers during the epidemic.
Early 2009 the Cholera epidemic drew to a close, however what remained was a nation recovering from gross poverty, disease and an economic meltdown. At this time a small medical student group from Newcastle university formed an organisation called Hope Zimbabwe under the leadership of HealthServe Australia, which aims to partner with the local Zimbabweans’ endeavours to rebuild their nation.
There are three main aims of Hope Zimbabwe:
- Raise awareness of the situation in Zimbabwe
- Gather people in prayer for the nation
- Provide material, educational, financial and spiritual support to those suffering.
Hope Zimbabwe works in three focus areas:
1. Supporting the program of ‘Champions for Life (CFL)’
Help with children suffering with HIV in this program to be adequately educated in a holistic way to develop the positive attitudes of hope rather than despair and be matured into wholesome young adults and leaders for Zimbabwe’s future.
2. Partnering with Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Australia (CMDFA) and Christian Medical Fellowship Zimbabwe (CMFZ):
Support in the training of Zimbabwean medical students and give Australian students the opportunity to learn about medical issues such as diseases of poverty and HIV.
3. Building a strategic link with Celebration Health:
As Celebration Health Zimbabwe continue medical and compassionate aid outreach throughout their nation we will partner with their efforts.
Please check out this video that provides you with more information about Hope Zimbabwe:
C
elebration Health is part of Celebration Ministries International which is a large Church based in Harare. Celebration Health has a very clear vision to bring medical aid and sustainable structures for holistic medicine into the nation of Zimbabwe. They responded significantly to the Cholera Emergency before the government acknowledged there was a problem, producing three TV programs on Cholera treatment and prevention and six other reformational programs on healthcare, health education, and training of health care workers. Celebration Health sent teams of medical personnel into the high density areas with the highest infection rates. The Ministry of Health and Child Welfare asked for the assistance of Celebration Health. Funds that came from outside the country (including those from HealthServe Australia) were able to provided education and prevention to around initially 25,000 people scaling up to over 100,000 people educated in cholera prevention. Celebration Health estimates that approximately 15,000 were saved by direct treatment.
Celebration Health established a Command Centre to co-ordinate their response to the Cholera Emergency with treatment in Harare and up to 200km away via outreach teams.
The volunteer outreach teams largely came from 160 Healthcare professionals on the CMFZ database that was paid a small daily allowance when doing the Cholera work.
Overall funds donated were used to fund 500 healthcare workers and provide food packs and cholera treatment in the period December 2008 to March 2009.
Celebration Health have a diverse range of projects including:
- Continued medical “outreach” clinic programs in remote areas – they have provided free surgical and medical care to approximately 8,500 people in recent years. These “outreach” clinics occur monthly.
- Mission Weeks, where local and international medical teams provide specialist operations in a concentrated area. For example, teams have performed a week of hernia operations, cleft palate and Hydrocephalus operations at a central hospital.
- Ongoing development of “Health Track Courses” that are courses providing basic health information for the public on common illnesses such as HIV, TB, Malaria, Hypertension, Diabetes, Cancer etc and can be used in church and community settings.
- Education for Community Health Volunteers in remote and poor areas.
Through building a strategic link with Celebration Health, Hope Zimbabwe partners with them in specific outreaches and projects like Champions for Life.
A major concern of Celebration Health is the number of children suffering from HIV in Zimbabwe without stable family, proper medication, education or role models. Current estimation is that there are 120,000 children in the nation living with HIV/AIDS.Champions for Life (CFL) is a project of Celebration Health which started in 2005 to help young people who live with HIV and are suffering with issues of stigma and hopelessness regarding the future. Each child with HIV in the program is called a ‘Champion’. CFL’s vision is to multiply within Zimbabwe and internationally camps, day seminars, and mentorship relationships that heal, build, equip and empower Champions physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually by teaching and mentoring in an atmosphere of unconditional love and acceptance, faith, celebration, and accountability.
They aim to bring HOPE to Champions with the following values:
Honour
Openness
Perseverance
Excellence
Through connecting with children who come to regional Opportunistic Infection clinics for their HIV medication and check-ups, CFL invites the Champions to be part of their program.
CFL currently organise camps and monthly seminars that are run by a multidisciplinary team of pastors, counsellors, doctors, nurses, health science students, and young people living with HIV. The programs enable young people to connect with other children in similar situations to them, building friendships and being given positive holistic education. Through being part of CFL these children are able to rise above levels of despair and hopelessness and develop as leaders in their communities, educating and supporting others with HIV. The leadership team includes young people living with HIV. The camps have a high leader/helper to Champion ratio to maximise input into the Champions lives. Small group sessions also enable Champions to talk about their personal issues in a comfortable setting. The CFL day seminars and camps are fast, fun, dynamic, and interactive. Music, dance, drama, sound, multimedia and digital technology are important in communicating to the hearts and minds of the Champions.
CFL are rapidly growing throughout their nation, however they are still only serving a small proportion of HIV positive children and adolescents in Zimbabwe. CFL would like to increase its impact to many more of these children and ensure that holistic education is available to these children, including schooling, health and spiritual education.
In it’s support of the program of Champions for Life, Hope Zimbabwe focuses on the practical needs of schooling and healthcare in their partnership, along with supporting funding of Champions seminar days.
4. Christian Medical Fellowship Zimbabwe (CMFZ)
Christian Medical Fellowship Zimbabwe (CMFZ) is a branch of the International Christian Medical and Dentistry Association (ICMDA). It is comprised of medical and dental students and doctors in Zimbabwe, many of whom have participated in Celebration Health activities including Champions for Life camps. The students meet together regularly in the week and have annual camps. They serve in their hospital together on the children wards and general medical wards in lunch times and after school finishes for the day. Projects undertaken by CMFZ include large weekend clinics to provide medical treatment for rural poor, school guidance programs and many of them were heavily involved in the emergency Cholera care team.
A focus of the organisation is encouraging members to go out as volunteers every 2-3 months to assist people. Members are encouraged in practising medicine with compassion, integrity and excellence. A current project of CMFZ is to provide student scholarships to its younger members who are completing their studies.
Through the friendships that Hope Zimbabwe is building between Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Australia (CMDFA) Christian Medical Fellowship Zimbabwe (CMFZ) we look towards supporting the medical students through the resourcing of textbooks and other study materials such as teaching DVDs. We also have a scholarship program to support Australian medical and dental students to do electives in Zimbabwe. See more information on this in ‘Support’ – Hope Zimbabwe Scholarship.