Village care….

As I have mentioned in previous posts, Mark Haldane of Zambeze Delta Safaris has taken a great interest in not only the animals in his care but the villagers in the area. One of the first things that he did was to encourage the family units to move closer together so that it would be easier to provide services for them.

This is one of the areas where people have recently moved from…..

I am hoping to explore this particular area further when we return.

One of the reasons for moving the villagers closer together is so they have better access to the school and clinic.

The clinic was built by the Cabela Family Foundation and we had the opportunity to visit it…..

This is Mr. Quisito…..

He is the technician who runs the clinic and we spent some time talking with him. He is there to help with emergencies that occur but his primary concern is for malaria patients. Malaria is the number one killer of people in Africa, with the death rate being highly skewed toward very young children. He said that, in April, he had treated one thousand people for this disease, including the majority of the Sena villagers!!

The treatment consists of 12 tablets, taken over a period of three days…..

These bottles of antibiotics are used to treat certain bacteria and parasites……

This is the map of the village, showing where each of the new families are living…..

It was fun to see the “baby” scale hanging in one corner of the room…..

There were also a bunch of posters designed to help the villagers with nutrition and other health issues…..

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It was also interesting to see the Coronovirus notices…..

We were told that, although the building was provided by the Cabela Family Foundation, the technician is paid and the drugs are provided by the Mozambique government.

Zambeze Delta Safaris comes into the picture by providing upkeep on the building and often giving emergency transport when needed.

While we were there, one of the ZDS employees came into camp with an obviously broken arm. He said that he was riding on his motorbike when a snake reared up in the road. He swerved to get away from the snake and managed to crash his bike!! Fortunately, the crash scared the snake away!! They had to airlift him to the nearest city!!

After hearing this story, I thought more carefully about my daily walks down the road!!!