WFH delivers aid regardless of politics

“With the shortage of fuel, we have no access to the rural villages. We write to patients, but they can’t afford to write back. We don’t know if people are dead or alive,” says Velempini Dhlamini of the Zimbabwe Hemophilia Society.

Dhlamini voice is solemn when he speaks about life in Zimbabwe, a country decimated by civil conflict, economic sanctions, rampant unemployment and HIV/AIDS. He personally knows that six people with hemophilia who have died recently. As he tries in desperation make contact with the 350 others known with the condition, he is well aware that even if he reaches them, he cannot promise them treatment.

“Before the economic sanctions, our situation was not so bad. There was limited provision of hemophilia treatment. We never had treatment on demand, but we could treat patients who were in dire need of product. Presently, the only available option is cryoprecipitate, but our National Blood Transfusion Service is affected by a critical shortage of foreign currency, which they need to procure blood packs and HIV and hepatitis C testing kits. We only survive by receiving donations from organizations like the WFH,” says Dhlamini. He applauds the fact that the WFH provides humanitarian aid to people with hemophilia regardless of politics.

Zimbabwe used to be one of the richest countries in Africa. Today, shortages of everything from food to gas to medical care are a fact of daily life. People have become familiar with burying family members, neighbours and friends who have died young. Life expectancy in the country is less than 40 years, according to recent UN estimates.

The country’s political and economic crisis has led to an exodus of qualified healthcare professionals to neighbouring countries. Dhlamini knows of only one hematologist who has remained in the country. That hematologist operates a private practice and works part-time. Even Dhlamini has to travel to hundreds of miles to Botswana, leaving his family for two weeks at a time, to find work as a laboratory scientist.

“Looking back at Zimbabwe ten years ago, life was better. Now life here is so hard,” says Dhlamini. “If it wasn’t for the WFH, I don’t know where our people would be today.”