Health Education Centre

To ensure a high standard of nursing care and a ready supply of nurses to the remote Chikombedzi Mission Hospital the hospital board decided to reopen the School of Nursing which had been closed for many years.
With the help of our generous supporters and fund raising efforts, AFADU and individual sponsors have helped to refurbish a building, consisting of offices, a library, a lecture room and a room for practical training that will now be used as a Health education centre to provide continuing education development and training for health workers in the region.

Raising the standard of health care and improving outcomes for patients has been a long term objective of AFADU. AFADU has also focused on the creation of job opportunities for school leavers, including our own children at the Lirhanzo Children’s Village.

The project for a Nursing School was born.

With the help of in-country support an old building within the Hospital Grounds was chosen for renovation and in 2008 a long term supporter of AFADU and Qantas Captain, Margret Conway donated $2000 to start the ball rolling.

By September 2009 the School was beginning to take shape and the old building had been expanded to include a toilet block, office, library, demonstration room and lecture theatre. A large amount of support from generous donors has added to Margret Conway’s initial donation

All projects have challenges and The School of Nursing had many.

Fires in the hospital grounds, changing requirements and standards and loss of coordination staff have all contributed to delays.

But that’s the life of development in Africa… and so a rethink was in order…

After discussions with the Chikombedzi Hospital administration it was decided that the “School of Nursing” would become the brand new “Chikombedzi Hospital Education Centre”. On Thursday 24 April 2014 we had an official handover of the “Education Centre” occurred.

The main lecture room is being used by traditional health workers for an educational meeting related to the distribution of rota virus and HPV immunisations.

Student nurses on rural placement will enjoy the facility as well as many workshop participants from rural health centres. The centre is also being used by hospital staff for in-service training.

The dream although only partially accomplished, has fulfilled many of the goals AFADU set out to achieve. The Centre is being used for education and training and as a resource centre and standards of care will rise as more courses are held in the new facility.

The project could not have been completed without all the support of the many who helped organise the fundraisers in Darwin, Hamilton Island, Sydney and Airlie Beach and especially to those who came, opened their hearts to this unique and deserving part of Africa by attending, having a ball in the process and helping us to raise the money necessary.