Zimbabwe 2020 © Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi

Zimbabwe

The health sector faces numerous challenges, including shortages of medical supplies and essential medicines

Our work in Zimbabwe

In 2021, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continued to address gaps in health care in Zimbabwe, with a focus on adolescent sexual and reproductive health and support for vulnerable migrants and deportees.

Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment

What's happening in Zimbabwe?

The economic situation continues to decline with very few funds available for public expenditure and social services. As a result, the health sector faces numerous challenges, including shortages of medical supplies and essential medicines.

MSF runs projects in partnership with the Zimbabwean Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC), providing treatment for HIV, tuberculosis (TB), non-communicable diseases, and mental health issues.

While HIV prevalence has decreased from 30 percent in the early 2000s to 15 percent today, there are still major gaps in services, such as the availability of routine viral load monitoring and second-line antiretroviral (ARV) treatment.

We also offer comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care services for adolescents in the urban district of Mbare, and support the health ministry to respond to disease outbreaks.

MSF teams are currently responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe.

Nurse-led approach model for NCDs patients

How we're helping in Zimbabwe

In the capital, Harare, we ran a project providing comprehensive youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services, including safe abortion and post-abortion care, through our clinic in Mbare.

Our teams have been working to improve access to similar services in the nearby town of Epworth. We constructed a youth center where young people can participate in recreational and educational activities and learn about sexual and reproductive health in a non-medical setting.

In Beitbridge, where we offer medical assistance to migrants, deportees and the local community, we strengthened measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These included providing technical and hands-on support to improve the flow of people, promoting handwashing and physical distancing practices, and improving access to water and sanitation.

During the second and third waves of COVID-19, we also supported the national response by running training programs for nursing assistants at Wilkins Infectious Disease Hospital in Harare and Beitbridge District Hospital. Our program model equipped nursing assistants with basic hospital tasks to support the care of COVID-19 patients.

How we're helping in 2021

270

Individual mental health consultations

Women received safe abortion care

1,950

Consultations for contraceptive services

2000

Year MSF first worked in the country

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How you can help

Not everyone can treat patients in the field. But everyone can do something.

Some humanitarian crises make the headlines—others don’t. Unrestricted support from our donors allows us to mobilize quickly and efficiently to provide lifesaving medical care to the people who need it most, whether those needs are in the spotlight or not. And your donation is 100 percent tax-deductible.