St John set up cholera centres in Zimbabwe
Posted: 08 December 2008
Zimbabwe continues to face its most serious cholera epidemic ever. During December the disease spread across the country and claimed the lives of nearly 2000 people. Latest reports suggest Harare is still the area of main concern with cases in recent weeks continuing to increase and the situation likely to remain the same for a few more months.
St John Zimbabwe rapidly responded to the crisis and set up three rehydration centres, two in highly populated suburbs of Harare and one in the town of Gweru. Volunteers set to work cleaning and looking after patients, ensuring they were receiving the best possi
ble care in such dire circumstances. Cholera is an extremely contagious bacterial disease. It is spread by drinking contaminated water and hand contact with human waste, which is then passed to the mouth. If left untreated it causes severe dehydration and death. However, it is relatively easy to cure, using oral rehydration solution
The volunteers are provided with food each day and were equipped with protective clothing, cleaning equipment, water purification tablets, rehydration salts – which was funded by donations from St John organisations around the world. Volunteers, some who have been working continuously for three months, worked side by side with hospital staff, Medicin sans Frontieres and UNICEF to combat the disease and save many hundreds of lives. Teamwork, cooperation and hard work have been the key to their success.
Bill Moore, St John Chairman for Zimbabwe, spent time with volunteers at the centres and spoke highly of their work. “Our St John volunteers are not only hard-working, dedicated and disciplined but they now realise the importance of what they have been doing. Some of the volunteers are graduates of the child-headed households' programme (Read The Link, Issue 24 ), but many of the others are from Mbare High School. The former Lord Prior, Eric Barry visited this school when in Zimbabwe and it proves that the work St John does in schools and with child-headed households is bearing great fruit. I am very proud of our people”
Posted by: Admin
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