Recently, The New York Times reported on the health care situation in turbulent Zimbabwe. Kathy McCarty, an American nurse working at Chidamoyo Christian Hospital in Zimbabwe reported being paid in peanuts, sacks of grain and other non-monetary forms of compensation. The virtual collapse of Mugabe’s economy and the worthlessness of Zim money have people bartering for medical attention. In turn health care providers turn peanuts and other food products into nutritional meals for sick patients.

The Times article explains, “For many rural Zimbabweans, cash remains so scarce that the 85-bed Chidamoyo Christian Hospital has continued to allow its patients to barter. Studies have found that fees are a major barrier to medical care in rural areas, where most Zimbabweans live.” The decision to barter non-monetary goods, turned medical supplies (food and nutrition for patients) in exchange for medical care creates an innovative and win-win situation for Zimbabwean patients.

During the hyperinflation and collapse of Zimbabwe’s economy in 2008 Chidamoyo kept its doors open as a result of patients providing necessary commodities to medical personnel. The staff of Chidamoyo Christian Hospital continues to barter using thrifty techniques to maximize their medical resources. Medical staff reuse latex gloves after sterilization, filling the gloves with water to ensure hole-free supplies. Nurses use cotton balls found in pill bottles to swab patients’ arms before injections.

Regardless of the imperfect Zimbabwean health system, the United States continues to swim in the chaotic, amoral world of health insurance companies, the never ending problem of lack of access to health care and confusing health care legislation. Luckily for Zimbabweans, they seem to have the whole thing figured out.

For more information, HERE is an interesting video recap!

"Ethiopia" a scene of over-grazing and desertification, making it difficult for both people and animals to survive. (From the MSF Photo Blog)

• ’There’s no reason only poor people should get malaria’

In an action that surprised many audience guests, Bill Gates, released a small number of mosquitoes into the crowd at the TED conference. Gates quit Microsoft last year to focus more on his philanthropic work. He spoke of the need, and his commitment, to put more funding towards developing drugs to combat malaria, one of the highest killers in the ‘developing’ world.
Watch the video:
More:
Mosquito Genes Linked To Insecticide Resistance May Be New Target in Fight Against Malaria,
Insecticide malaria impact clue

• When there is no village doctor

It is estimated that every fourth medical doctor and every twentieth nurse trained in Africa leaves the continent for better job prospects and better pay in wealthier countries. The UN Global Health Workforce Alliance warns that the economic crisis could further increase the medical workforce crisis across Africa.

For David Werner, who wrote the widely-translated 1970s village health care manual, “Where There is No Doctor,” medical specialization is not the best answer. “Experts come in and think they have all the answers, and end up drowning out solutions villagers could devise themselves.”

• Need to Focus on Maternal, Child Health – Top AU Official

As the African Union meets in Addis Ababa, Commissioner for Social Affairs Biencé Gawana said in regards to the AU’s proposed launch of a continent-wide program,

“We will launch a movement to promote maternal and child health in the continent,” she told reporters. “It will be an advocacy campaign… together with partners like UNFPA [the UN Population Fund] and UNICEF [the UN Children's Fund].

With 500,000 women dying in childbirth each year, Africa has some of the highest rates of maternal, infant, and child mortality. As part of the solution the AU report noted: “One of the main challenges in the promotion of maternal, infant and child health and development is access to health care facilities and services, especially at primary health delivery level and [in] rural areas.”

• Zimbabwe: Cholera Infection Rate Climbs As UN Cleared to Assess Crisis

On Monday the WHO reported an increase of 2000 cholera deaths in Zimbabwe. The report was released just as President Mugabe agreed to allow a top level UN assessment team to tour the country to find solutions to curb the cholera pandemic as well as the current hunger crisis. Food security continues to plummet in may areas of Zimbabwe as many worry they will not receive aid in time.
More: Zimbabwe Cholera Statistics Rise Again As New Malaria Fears Grow,
Zimbabwe Diary: fighting cholera

• South Africa: The Quiet Water Crisis

There is great concern with the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe, but what the South African government may be missing is its very own growing water crisis. With an aging infrastructure and rising demand, the potential for deadly bacteria to be released into its water systems is high. When Mandela’s government took power in 1994, an estimated 14 million South Africans lacked access to clean water supply and 21 million people lacked proper sanitation. Although the numbers have changed drastically, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) reported in 2008 that 5 million people still lacked access.

• Twestival and Charity: Water

Last year SCOUT BANANA conducted a ‘Year of Water’ Project to benefit the work of Charity: Water. The organization is now utilizing the social media tool, Twitter, to raise a large amount of money to build wells across the world. Charity: Water began its work by supporting well projects across the African continent.

• South Africa: ‘Development Must Adapt to Water Resources We Have’

98% of water resources are being used in South Africa. Water security is becoming an issue as pollution from mining has been difficult to clean up and no other water resources remain unused.

• Obama Lifts “Global Gag Rule”

Also known as the Mexico City Policy, this move is being applauded by women’s and productive rights groups across the globe.
More: Obama Reverses U.S. Ban on Abortion-Linked Aid

• University Partnership Aims to Fight HIV/AIDS More Effectively

Backed by an almost $5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, John Hopkins University is growing a partnership with Makerere University in Uganda in an attempt to combat the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic. The partnership is only in its initial steps.

The current condition of Zimbabwe is undeniably complicated and rapt with controversy. Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s only president since the country became independent of white rule in the early 1980s, was once hailed as a hero and held up as an example of excellent leadership to other newly-independent African nations. Now, as the rate of inflation in Zimbabwe continues to skyrocket and a cholera epidemic appears to be ravaging rural communities, many are calling Mugabe an inadequate dictator who’s unwillingness to accept new leadership may lead to his country’s demise.

Unfortunately, the current situation in Zimbabwe is anything but clean-cut. The country’s complicated colonial history continues to influence Mugabe’s political posturing and decision-making. Mugabe argues that the United States and the United Kingdom are executing a form of post-colonialism via sanctions levied against himself and companions in his political party, ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front). He argues that these sanctions are the primary cause of deteriorating social and economic conditions in Zimbabwe. He also boldly claims that the U.S. and U.K. regularly generate false data regarding the health of Zimbabwe’s citizens, most recently in the case of a cholera epidemic that Save the Children, a British NGO, claims has taken the lives of 1,111 among 20,581 cases since August 2008. Mugabe and his supporters have suggested that this data is an attempt by the West to usurp his democratically-appointed powers.

On the flip-side, the United States and the United Kingdom have issued repeated calls for Mugabe to relinquish his presidential powers in wake of Zimbabwe’s current social and economic crises. Many in both countries have accused Mugabe and ZANU-PF of influencing Zimbabwe’s most recent election through violence and intimidation. Supporters of the opposing MDC (Movement for Democratic Change), led by former presidential candidate and current prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai, have narrated stories of abuse and “reeducation” in camps operated by ZANU-PF. Similarly, as the apparent cholera epidemic continues to spiral out of control and child malnutrition worsens, the U.S. and U.K. cite that Mugabe is killing his own people through stubbornness.

The situation in Zimbabwe is complicated. These brief descriptions barely scratch the surface of the country’s multi-layered complexities. Nonetheless, we at SCOUT BANANA believe that the current conditions of Zimbabwe offer an excellent opportunity for education on multiple topics, including international health, development, post-colonialism, and globalization.

To offer a further introduction to Zimbabwe, I’d like to direct you to the BBC’s Country Profile. As you move to this site, I’d encourage you to examine the information offered there with a critical eye. What might appear fair and balanced is often rife with bias.

Good luck and please continue to check scoutbanana.org for updates.