Dadata villagers in Gwanda North travel long distances to access Covid-19 inoculation centres, a development that has seen many members of the community remaining unvaccinated, CITE has since established
Speaking to CITE over the weekend, Gwanda North’s Ward 2 councillor, Zwelibanzi Mpofu, said distances that villagers have to travel in order to access the nearest clinic was hampering the vaccination programme.
Ward 2 covers Dadata, Dambashoko and Silikwe.
“The other challenge that I have in my area is that clinics are very far away place by place,” Mpofu told CITE.
“As we speak in Dambashoko village we have mobilised the community and encouraged people to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Some people have to travel about 15km to get to Silikwe Clinic. The elderly cannot walk all that distance.”
She explained further: “We then sat down and decided to build our own clinic. As we speak I am waiting for people from Physical planning to come and peg for them at Dambashoko. They have since moulded 18 000 bricks. We are trying to build a clinic at Dambashoko to reduce the distances travelled by people. The building of that clinic can benefit Ward 2 and part of Ward 1 and Ward 4. All those people can be greatly assisted by that clinic.”
For now, Mpofu said villagers have to travel to Stanmore, Gwanda centre or Silikwe in order to access a clinic.
“They have to use scotch carts and vehicles to get there,” she said.
“We have a serious challenge in the Covid-19 vaccination campaign in that many people have not been vaccinated because of the distances they have to travel.”
She added that not everyone was covered during the mobile vaccination programme, which she said was poorly advertised.
