November 18, 2004
Aid to Africa: Update on Clinic in Zavora, Mozambique
Helena, a trained nurse and volunteer from Germany, joined the first team to do Health Care work at the DFL clinic in Zavora, which started from September 2004 . She recently returned to South Africa and wrote the following about her experiences...

At the Zavora Clinic

"On the 14 th of September 2004 we went to Mozambique with a small team for a medical outreach. The team led by the local missionary couple was comprised of a medical doctor from the USA, a nurse from Germany, a nursing assistant from the Netherlands and a translator from Angola. A truly international team doing the good bidding of God. Once in Mozambique we set up our clinic far out in the bush outside the small village of Zavora. In the camp we had to make do with very cold running water, electricity only generated by solar panels, and no phone service whatsoever.

Helena and Tineke attending to a mother and child

We would open the clinic every morning at 8 am but by 4 AM the locals would start lining up just to secure their places in the long lines. We could only see about sixty people daily for examinations and possible treatments but a lot more were left unseen therefore many had to make return trips to finally be seen.

The Mozambique coast line

The work was not always easy because of our limited stock of equipment and medicine. For example one day a young girl had come in with an asthma condition. We gave her an inhaler and explained to her how to use the device but when she attempted to use it she became fearful and was not able to inhale the medication after all. We had to improvise and with a throwaway foam cup out of which we created a makeshift mask for her to be able inhale the medication.

The work was also difficult at times because of all the different languages. The official language in Mozambique is Portuguese but a lot of the people who are mostly uneducated can only speak the local language which is Shoppe or Shangaan. We had problems with our communication with the locals and we often needed a second translator who would translate into the Shoppe after the English and Portuguese translations. Mostly everyone that came to us could neither speak nor write. Many times we encountered locals who didn’t even know their own age and it was not unusual for young ones to not have names.

During our sixteen day stay we saw about 770 patients in total. As out time came to an end we were tired but also very contented because we could help so many people.

The property given to DFL to construct the clinic

During a morning devotion with the patients awaiting the clinic

Helena takes blood pressure