May 28, 2008
Zavora Clinic Construction Progress

Aid to Africa: “Counting the Cost”

Registering and building our Zavora clinic in Mozambique has a long history of trials mixed with bureaucracy. To go into those details is a book on its own, but the amazingly good news is that the construction process is now well underway.

After weeks of planning Mario Rocha, our Portuguese translator and myself left for Mozambique on 28 February. To assist us with the construction a Dutch team, lead by Dr Paul Zuidema and Gerrit-Jan Vierhuizen met us in Maputo. They also shipped a 20 ft container along that was filled with building tools and material donated by our many Dutch friends. How we managed to get it through the border, right up to the point of opening it at Zavora in time, is nothing short of a miracle. Our time there was followed by numerous other potentially hazardous situations: banks not having our money ready, re-registering paperwork, police stops, bad roads, illnesses, heat, dodging overloaded busses etc. Without fail, God straightened all our paths.

Gerrit-Jan, in charge of the building work, managed to finish all the flooring, pillars and even a few wall. Although we were only there for a month, he exceeded even his own expectations. This is a special achievement considering that getting one load of sand, stone or cement took almost the whole day.

My first trip to the river bed to get sand was a special experience. Although only 30 odd km from our clinic it took me about six or more hours just to get there the first time. At times I had to cut my way through the bush. Arriving at the 'sand depot' we found a group of men busy cutting away chunks of sand from a river bed. The sand is then hit with sticks to break all the clots. After throwing the sand through a hand made sieve the fine sand is put aside and the coarse sand is collected and then loaded on the truck by hand. They say it takes about a week to collect 5 cubic metres of river sand needed for concrete mixing.

In Mozambique stone (or gravel) is almost a commodity. The nearest available place where you could collect it is about 50 km away at a place called Panda. Huge white rocks are dug out from below and brought to the surface and then manually smashed to pieces with hammers. Like with sand, it takes about seven days to get only 5 cubic metres of stone. We needed about 90 cubic metres.

We also had to arrange an official day to commemorate the start of the construction. Delegates from the local government and health department as well as the Zavora community attended this day. In true serimonial fashion the first concrete is usually cast by one of the officials during this event. In our case our zeal to start building had to be overlooked though. Instead he casting the first spade in the foundations, he had to settle for a wall that was already almost 1 metre high.

The construction team plans another 3 follow up visits to Zavora and hopes to finish the clinic by November this year. We would like to call upon you for assistance here. We would need doctors and nurses to donate help out at this clinic that will facilitate a maternity ward, consultation rooms, dental and eye care unit. The most recent development is that an International organization pledged enough funds to finish a surgery unit too.