Higherlife Foundation and Delta Philanthropies have donated diagnostic and critical care equipment worth nearly US$44,000 to the maternity wing at Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo to ensure expecting mothers and newborns receive the highest quality care.
The donation comes at a time when the majority of the life-saving equipment that Mpilo needs costs a lot of foreign currency, which is not readily available at the hospital’s institutional level.
Mpilo received one bilirubinometer, two phototherapy lights, three patient monitors (adult), three patient monitors (neonates), and three suction machines, adding to previous donations from Higherlife Foundation to reduce the patient-to-machine ratio and assist in reducing neonatal deaths.
During the presentation of the equipment at the maternity wing on Wednesday, Higherlife Foundation Country Director, Philani Nyatsanza, said the foundation would own the equipment to maintain and service it or move it as needed but would train hospital personnel on its use.
Nyatsanza said they were driven by a shared vision of Zimbabwe becoming an upper-middle-income economy by 2030, which can only happen if the country has enough healthy people.
“We are working tirelessly alongside partners to achieve specific, measurable goals which by 2030 include seeing a significant reduction in maternal and neonatal mortality rates to 70 per 100,000 and 12 per 1,000 live births respectively, aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 on good health and well-being,” he said.
He added that people’s health and well-being were top priorities in their Maternal Health Project, which they were working on with other partners.
“I stand before you today deeply grateful for our close partnership with ELMA Philanthropies. Their unwavering support underscores a powerful message: As Zimbabweans, we do not face these challenges in isolation. We are fortunate to have like-minded organisations and partners who go beyond empathy. They are willing to invest alongside us, turning compassion into concrete action,” Nyatsanza said.
Together with ELMA Philanthropies, Higherlife Foundation has launched a comprehensive maternal and neonatal health programme targeting a network of 16 crucial referral hospitals across Zimbabwe, including the five central hospitals.
These are Sally Mugabe Hospital, Parirenyatwa Hospital, Chitungwiza Hospital, Mpilo Hospital, and United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH), eight provincial hospitals – Victoria Chitepo, Gweru, Masvingo, Gwanda, St Lukes, Chinhoyi, Bindura, and Marondera, plus three city hospitals Beitbridge, Kwekwe, and Kadoma.
“This programme is a critical step towards strengthening our national healthcare infrastructure. By focusing on these key institutions, we aim to ensure that expecting mothers and newborns receive the highest quality care, regardless of their location,” said Nyatsanza.
He said this intervention would address equipment shortages by supplying essential diagnostic and critical equipment for maternity wards.
“This will combat a major issue – inadequate equipment leading to incorrect risk assessments, diagnoses, and treatments. The provided equipment includes ultrasound machines, CTGs, suction machines, CPAP machines, phototherapy lights, bilirubinometers, infusion and syringe pumps, incubators, infant warmers, patient monitors, glucometers, and dopplers, amongst other vital tools for critical care,” he said.
Secondly, the aim is to build human capacity.
“We are delivering Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care training. Additionally, human factors, leadership, and ethics training will be provided to clinical staff as well as auxiliary staff. This comprehensive approach will strengthen their technical skills, improve service delivery, and increase the number of skilled birth attendants during deliveries,” Nyatsanza added.
Mpilo Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr. Narcisius Dzvanga acknowledged that the equipment was life-saving and would help reduce neonatal deaths at the institution.
“Higherlife Foundation has come to our rescue with life-saving equipment and we are truly appreciative. Most of these resources require a lot of foreign currency which is not easily available at our institutional level,” he said, adding the organisation pledged to bring neonatal baby incubators in the foreseeable future.
“God bless the hand that gives,” he said.
Dr Dzvanga added the equipment would certainly provide a positive impact in preventing neonatal deaths, though he said a lot of factors needed to be looked at.
“Preventing neonatal deaths is not just a single factor issue but a multi-factorial one, such as having incubators, adequate staff, specialist nurses and we are working towards that to ensure our neonatal deaths are reduced remarkably sooner rather than later,” summed up the CMO.
