Sister Silindiwe and Mr Mudzi flew out from Edinburgh on 8th April to return home to Murambinda after a very successful trip to renew friendships and strengthen the relationship between the hospital and the Friends of Murambinda Hospital

They were shown around the Emergency Care Hospital in Newcastle by Matthew Anderson a medical student who has worked at Murambinda Hospital.

Sr Silindiwe Shuma and Mr Cephas Mudzi attended the meeting of FMH trustees and supporters in Leeds on 2nd April 2017.  They were welcomed and made many valuable contributions and explanations to the meeting.  They were able to get an understanding of the difficulties experienced in getting donations and distributing scarce funds by the Friends of Murambinda Hospital.

Sister Silindiwe and Mr Mudzi are continuing to visit FMH supporters in Scotland and be involved in fundraising activities. If you would like to come and meet them please email f.m.h@live.co.uk.

Princess Rukasha is a medical student in Australia who went to Murambinda Mission Hospital in November 2016 for her student elective.  Her report gives details of the enthusiastic traditional welcome she received, good teaching and sharing of skills by the nurses.  She saw the wide range of serious illnesses facing the people of Zimbabwe and Manicaland in particular by visiting Buhera Hospital and some of the outlying clinics.

The Friends of Murambinda Hospital supports the provision of health care throughout the Buhera District not just in the hospital.  The information that Princess has been able to supply to the trustees is very helpful in making decisions on the spending of scarce funds.

The entrance to outpatients                            Buhera District is a poor area of Zimbabwe

The Mwerihari river flows strongly at times   The entrance to Buhera Hospital

Buhera Hospital Out Patients                            Chiweshe rural clinic

We decided to improve the future self sufficiency of the Hospital by funding improvements to the kitchen garden including irrigation and greenhouses at a cost of around £3,616

We will service blood testing equipment to help with the care of acutely ill patients at a cost of £4,118

We will continue to pay the salaries of some key members of staff in full and  supplement key hospital salaries. However we are having to cut the supplements from 75% of what we paid in 2015 to 50% due to shortages of funds and the decline in the £:$ exchange rate. This is at a cost of £24,838.00

We will fund some important and life saving medical equipment. We will also pay for some improvements to the comfort and privacy of in-patients.  Exact sum to be to be determined.

Congratulations to Dr Kevin Jones who recently completed the Great North Run the largest Half Marathon in the UK. He ran the  13.1 miles to raise funds for Murambinda Mission Hospital via FMH. He raised over £500!  He is a Hospitaller of the Order of Lazarus of Scotland who have matched this sum with a donation. We are very grateful.

Are you are able to do something similar ?  If you need advice or publicity materials please email f.m.h@live.co.uk

Welcome donation from the Kuenssberg Charitable Foundation.

The trustees of Friends of Murambinda Hospital are delighted to record their appreciation of a donation of £1000 from the Kuenssberg Charitable Foundation to allow the work of supporting a struggling rural hospital in a poorly resourced area of Zimbabwe to continue.

Their covering letter to the donation states that “We are aware of the severe problems currently facing the (Murambinda Mission) Hospital with the withdrawal of the MSF funding and are purposely leaving our donation ‘undesignated’ so that the money can be allocated to top priority”

Meeting of Trustees on 21st November.

FMH trustees and supporters met on 21st November 2015 and agreed to provide vital funds to contribute to the salaries of hospital staff salaries including General Hands, Nurse Aides, Nurses, Nurse Tutors, Administrators, Midwives and Doctors. We recognise that each plays an important part directly or indirectly in patient care.

We will also contribute to the repair and servicing of the anaesthetic machine and laboratory blood testing equipment.

The Nurse Training School is currently helping Primary Care nurses working in outlying clinics to improve their care of pregnant women. This is vital to help reduce maternal and infant mortality. We plan to contribute to some maintenance and building work in the Training School.

We were also asked for around £20,000 to fund 6 months of medicines for patients with long term conditions such as asthma, hypertension, heart failure and psychosis. Sadly we are not going to be able to fund this in full, please help us with fundraising.

Click here to start donating via online shopping !

 Tuberculosis remains a major health problem.It is a nasty disease that can affect all ages and commonly leads to months of severe coughing, with night sweats, weight loss,.disability and death. The good news is that if found it can be treated, and if treated for months with multiple anti-tuberculous medicines it can be cured.It requires meticulous contact tracing and follow up of cases.

Murambinda has benefited greatly from the help and support of TBAlert a UK charity. It helped decentralise TB detection and treatment from Murambinda Mission Hospital to  rural clinics. Sadly TBALert is unable to continue to support work at Murambinda. THis will lead to extra strain on the hospital’s staff.

Please do what you can to donate to Murambinda continue the struggle against TB..

MSF EXIT.

On 19 June 2015

MSF held a farewell party at Murambinda to mark their exit from Murambinda and the District. MSF closed their offices in Murambinda and have since moved to Mutare. MMH and MSF signed an MOU which runs to end of year 2015 but has since reduced their contributions towards allowances and running costs including salaries for supplementary staff at MMH.

We are facing the following challenges from the MSF exit

• Pharmacy, blood and fuel costs support has been reduced. These three are the main running costs which we can not do without. In addition some staff pay has also been reduced .The hospital has increased and stepped up user fees collection but due to economic challenges it is not able to collect enough to cover for all running costs.
• Please be generous, could you do organise a fundraising event via our MyDonate fundraising page?