Pregnant Women in Zimbabwe need your help

Gogo Gwena is a Traditional Midwife who stays in Mbare, Harare Zimbabwe. On 6^th of October 2020 she was on the Issue Pane Nyaya radio show where she detailed issues affecting pregnant women that she helps to deliver at her place. She stays with her niece in a two roomed house. Women with different kinds of pregnancy related complications come to her place to give birth despite her lack of formal medical training. She has delivered over 400 babies since the doctors’ and nurses’ strike started in 2019. Due to the exorbitant prices being charged at private and public health centers, unavailability of doctors and nurses at local clinics and hospitals, Gogo Gwena’s place has become a popular place were women deliver their babies. More so, those who deliver at her place pay 20 USD or in kind. The majority of these women come from low income families and usually do not have enough even for their upkeep or baby clothes for the unborn babies. For example, Gogo Gwena narrated a story of a woman who gave birth to twins but she did not have enough clothes for both babies as she never had a scan or knew she was carrying twins.

It is against this background that as Chengeto Zimbabwe Trust and Connections to Communities (C2C) we are mobilizing any kind of support for women who deliver at Gogo Gwena’s place. We have realized that for the safety of the women and their babies Gogo Gwena requires sanitizers, gloves, masks, towels and blankets among other things. Everything received will be donated not only to Gogo Gwena and other expecting mothers.