Grant will allow for the renovation of a building for a clinic which will provide whole health care to the eastern portion of the Lubombo Region in Swaziland. The area is isolated and remote and will serve an impoverished population. Access to health care is a major issue. The cost of transport can be exorbitant to the closest fully functional health facility. Establishing a local clinic will serve an overall population of approximately 8000.
The impoverished and isolated population from the clinic location in the community of Maphiveni to the Mozambique border at Lomahasha. It is estimated that the clinic will help serve a population of 8000 as well as attracting cross border patients from Mozambique.
Community meetings brought to light the difficulty the communities had in accessing health care. Access to functional health care is a major issue for rural isolated communities in Swaziland. Swaziland has the highest HIV rate in the world at approximately 27%. With access to care and treatment, HIV becomes another manageable disease. As HIV is managed, other non-communicable disease become evident in the population. But the problem of access to health care remains. The clinic will provide access to an entire area that is under-served and still struggles to access care.
The renovated clinic will provide an access point to an area of the country that is under-served. Clinic services are intended to be free to the community. Expecting an impoverished community to pay for services will exclude a significant portion of the community from accessing services.
Community meetings brought to light the difficulty the communities had in accessing health care. The clinic will work hand in hand with an already existing mobile medical outreach. The mobile outreach uses Good Shepherd Hospital (minimum of 50km away) as a referral point. By providing services locally, the clinic will reduce the transport requirement necessary to bring patients to Good Shepherd.
No trainings are specifically involved with the renovation. However, the clinic will serve as a focal point for community education outreaches touching on HIV, TB, malaria, healthy living, and sanitation and hygiene. Training of Rural Health Motivators (volunteer community health workers) and other interested community members will be facilitated at the clinic by qualified nurses and doctors.
RC Mbabane will provide fiscal oversight, aid in obtaining competitive quotes and evaluating them.
Baton Rouge Capital City RC has monitored the work of Kudvumisa Foundation in this area of Swaziland for 5 years. The club will continue to monitor by emails and will receive progress reports of the remodeling and setting up of the clinic and its services. Club CPA/Treasurer will will receive copies monthly of all paid invoices from the Treasurer of the RC Mbabane.
Local labor will be sourced as possible for the renovation activities. Additionally, resources will be bought locally where possible to support local business and create business opportunities in the local community where possible.
The area overseer for the local chief will form a part of the community liaison with Kudvumisa Foundation to keep the chief informed of the progress and proposed outcomes of the project.
A professional and registered architect in Swaziland has compiled the budget items based on an agreed upon design and national and professionally accepted standards of construction. All material will be sourced and bought from local vendors where possible. A competitive bidding process is a part of the construction process. Only competitive bids will be accepted by the RC Mbabane unless there are compelling reasons why this may not work for specific purchases. Exclusions will be documented. All budget items will fully comply with both local culture and technology standards.
The partner organization will be responsible for maintaining the premises as agreed upon in the MoU.
Kudvumisa Trust owns the property and all improvements. The Trust is set up to benefit primarily women and children affected by HIV and poverty in Swaziland.
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