About the Hospital
St. Albert’s Mission Hospital opened in 1964 with 85 beds. It is located on
the escarpment overlooking the Zambezi Valley in northern Zimbabwe near the
Mozambique border. (Zimbabwe -- Google maps)
Originally, St Albert's was run by Dominican nun nurses. Elizabeth Tarira,
MD, MPH, a Zimbabwean, was the hospital’s first resident doctor. She arrived in
1983 and gradually built up the hospital to today's 140-bed capacity. St Albert's
became a district hospital in 1985 Elizabeth became the hospital’s director in
1999. She remained director of St. Albert's until her death from recurrent breast
cancer in July 2012. Dr. Julia Musarir has since been the hospital's interim director.
a general practice physician
trained in HIV care.
St Albert's became a district hospital in 1985. As a
district hospital, the government is supposed to pay the salaries of the staff,
provide drugs and pay a part of the hospital's running costs. The Diocese of
Chinhoyi also contributes to the capital costs of buildings, equipment and major
repairs. The hospital must itself cover any shortfalls.
Dr. Julia is assisted at St. Albert’s by Neela Naha, MD, an Indian
obstetrician, and Zimbabwean Julia Musariri, MD, a general practice physician
trained in HIV care. A Zimbabwean woman, Melania Mayamakuwa, directs the
hospital’s voluntary counseling and testing program and its home-based care
program.
Facts about St. Albert’s Mission Hospital
Zimbabwe’s economy began collapsing in 2000. Shortages of fuel, electricity,
water, and basic drugs and equipment remain a daily struggle.
Yet, in spite of steadily worsening conditions, Elizabeth keeps the hospital
running and even growing. In 2000, she started a farm project to grow maize and
other crops on 100 hectares (247 acres) of donated land. Crops include maize,
groundnuts (peanuts), potatoes, green vegetables, carrots, beans and tomatoes.
The project provides food for hospital patients, and surplus is sold to pay the
farm workers. In 2004, when drought dried up the hospital’s wells and
threatened to close the hospital, she dammed a seasonal stream and produced a
reservoir. Unfortunately, Zimbabwe’s rapidly rising inflation rate has
stymied the last phase of this project, installing a water purification system.
In Jan. 2006, Elizabeth began a nurses training program that will aid the
hospital and help relieve Zimbabwe’s nursing shortage.
Elizabeth, Neela, Julia and Melania and the people they serve depend heavily
on friends outside the country. They need, and deserve, our help
St. Albert’s Mission Hospital opened in 1964 with 85 beds. It is located on
the escarpment overlooking the Zambezi Valley in northern Zimbabwe near the
Mozambique border. (Zimbabwe -- Google maps)
Originally, St Albert's was run by Dominican nun nurses. Elizabeth Tarira,
MD, MPH, a Zimbabwean, was the hospital’s first resident doctor. She arrived in
1983 and gradually built up the hospital to today's 140-bed capacity. St Albert's
became a district hospital in 1985 Elizabeth became the hospital’s director in
1999. She remained director of St. Albert's until her death from recurrent breast
cancer in July 2012. Dr. Julia Musarir has since been the hospital's interim director.
a general practice physician
trained in HIV care.
St Albert's became a district hospital in 1985. As a
district hospital, the government is supposed to pay the salaries of the staff,
provide drugs and pay a part of the hospital's running costs. The Diocese of
Chinhoyi also contributes to the capital costs of buildings, equipment and major
repairs. The hospital must itself cover any shortfalls.
Dr. Julia is assisted at St. Albert’s by Neela Naha, MD, an Indian
obstetrician, and Zimbabwean Julia Musariri, MD, a general practice physician
trained in HIV care. A Zimbabwean woman, Melania Mayamakuwa, directs the
hospital’s voluntary counseling and testing program and its home-based care
program.
Facts about St. Albert’s Mission Hospital
- It serves a 3,000 sq km (1,800 sq mi) area, with a population in 2006 of
120,000. It resides on the edge of the Zambezi escarpment, and serves people in
the surrounding villages and those living below in the poorer, dryer,
malaria-ridden Zambezi Valley. Both areas continue to grow as people migrate
from cities to the rural areas because of Zimbabwe's declining economy. - The hospital includes a rehabilitation unit; male, female and children's
wards; a maternity unit; neonatal unit; small staff ward; a septic and aseptic
surgical theater; outpatient care area; biochemistry and microbiology
laboratories, a pharmacy, kitchen, Voluntary Counseling and Testing Center (VCT)
and home-based care program. - Each year, St. Albert’s admits about 5,000 patients, treats about 40,000
outpatients and delivers about 2,600 babies. - The hospital’s HIV/AIDS program provides antiretroviral drugs to 591
patients, of which 60% are women and 32% are men, and 8% are children (as of
Nov. 2008). But the need is far greater, and Elizabeth is working to expand
the program. - The hospital provides antiretroviral drugs to pregnant HIV-infected women to
prevent mother-to-child transmission of the AIDS virus to the baby. St. Albert’s
was the first rural hospital in Zimbabwe to offer a program for pregnant
women to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Data gathered during the
pilot program showed that such programs are feasible in the nation’s rural
areas. - St. Albert’s HIV mother-to-child-prevention program was launched in March
2001. Beginning in 2005, all pregnant women have been tested for HIV infection.
Since 2001 the program has counseled 11,420 mothers; 1,420 are HIV
positive, and 1,079 babies received nevirapine. HIV-negative babies: 80%;
HIV-positive babies: 19.4% (as of Nov. 2008). The hospital’s HIV/AIDS
prevention and treatment programs have several sources of support: the
Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) (see http://www.cafod.org.uk/where_we_work/africa/zimbabwe)
); the government of Zimbabwe; the Italian Association for World
Development; the European Union; and the Luisa Giodotti Missionary Group. - The hospital began its innovative home-based care program in 1991 to help
families care for loved ones with disabilities and chronic illnesses including
AIDS, cancer, hypertension, asthma, and disabilities. It trains community
volunteers who visit the sick and advise families in their care. When the
hospital’s care team arrives in the village, the volunteer tells them which
families most need a visit. These home visits have dwindled from weekly to
monthly or every few months because of fuel shortages and ever-rising costs.
- The home-based care program pays the school fees for hundreds of orphans and
tries to provide seed and fertilizer to the neediest grandmothers caring for
them. - St. Albert’s has limited technology available. It includes basic hematology,
chemistry and some microbiology. Thanks to donor companies in Germany, St.
Albert’s has one of only two working CD4-cell counters in all of Zimbabwe.
The same company provided an ultrasound and autoclaves, although reagents and
equipment maintenance remain a challenge. Such financial support and equipment
donations are a testament to the good work that Elizabeth and the other
doctors are doing at St. Albert’s.
Zimbabwe’s economy began collapsing in 2000. Shortages of fuel, electricity,
water, and basic drugs and equipment remain a daily struggle.
Yet, in spite of steadily worsening conditions, Elizabeth keeps the hospital
running and even growing. In 2000, she started a farm project to grow maize and
other crops on 100 hectares (247 acres) of donated land. Crops include maize,
groundnuts (peanuts), potatoes, green vegetables, carrots, beans and tomatoes.
The project provides food for hospital patients, and surplus is sold to pay the
farm workers. In 2004, when drought dried up the hospital’s wells and
threatened to close the hospital, she dammed a seasonal stream and produced a
reservoir. Unfortunately, Zimbabwe’s rapidly rising inflation rate has
stymied the last phase of this project, installing a water purification system.
In Jan. 2006, Elizabeth began a nurses training program that will aid the
hospital and help relieve Zimbabwe’s nursing shortage.
Elizabeth, Neela, Julia and Melania and the people they serve depend heavily
on friends outside the country. They need, and deserve, our help
