Parque Nacional da Gorongosa Moçambique

As a part of its commitment to improving the standard of living of the people living around the Park, the Gorongosa Restoration Project is constructing health clinics and schools in communities in the Park’s buffer zone.  The first of these was built last year in the community of Vinho, located just across the Pungue River from Gorongosa’s Chitengo camp.  This health center, along with a new school built at the same time in the community, was officially inaugurated by the President of Mozambique, Armando Guebuza, along with four of his cabinet ministers, in a ceremony held on June 24, 2008.

Many of Chitengo’s workers live in Vinho and Bebedo, the larger community of which Vinho is a part, and these workers previously had access only to a small health center at Chitengo camp.   That health center was only able to provide a small range of services and, because of its location within the Park’s boundaries, was more difficult for community members to access. 

The Vinho health clinic is also a contribution of the Gorongosa Restoration Project as part of the Mozambican Ministry of Health’s plan to open or refurbish hundreds of rural clinics country-wide, including 54 clinics in communities in the Gorongosa National Park area.  The Gorongosa Restoration Project worked in partnership with the Ministry (through district- and provincial-level offices) in the construction of the Vinho clinic:  the Project paid for and oversaw the construction of the building, provided all of the furniture and equipment, and then turned the facility over to the Ministry.  The Ministry manages the health center, including its staff and stock of medicines and supplies, through the Nhamatanda District Directorate for Health and Social Welfare.

The Vinho health clinic offers general care and maternal health services.  Between May 13 and June 24, 2008, the two Vinho health clinic nurses saw more than 1440 people from the communities of Vinho, Bebedo, Madangua, Mutondo, Metuchira, and Malenve – more patients than had sought treatment in Chitengo’s small health center during the entire first quarter of 2008.  The health center serves a population of at least 6,000 people in these nearby communities.  The vast majority of patients suffer from malaria, as many as 85% according to Francisco Adolfo, one of the health center’s nurses.  These patients seek medicine from the clinic to treat their illness.  The health center is able to offer medicines for next to no cost to patients through a Ministry of Health program.  Patients are charged six metacais per visit, or about $0.25, but assistance is not refused to them if they cannot pay, which is fortunate as most of the local residents seeking treatment at the Vinho health center cannot afford to pay.

Between May 13 and June 24, 2008, the maternity nurse at the health center was monitoring nearly one hundred pregnancies, delivered eleven babies, and transferred one laboring mother to the nearest hospital to address complications.  Prior to this clinic’s opening, most mothers birthed at home except in the case of complications, when they might have traveled to the larger town of Nhamatanda, located about 50 km down the road.  By monitoring pregnancies, the clinic nurse can improve maternal health and better anticipate complications, thereby helping to reduce infant mortality, a key statistic in the assessment of community health.  In 2005, the infant mortality rate in Mozambique was estimated to be 107.7 per 1,000 live births, lower than in the previous 15 years but still high when compared to the infant mortality rate of South Africa (51.9) or the United States (6.8)

Mozambique was ranked as the poorest country in the world in 1992, and although the country has witnessed a steady decline in poverty rates, in 2003, more than 54% of the population still lived below the poverty line.  In 2003, UNICEF estimated that 63% of rural children in Mozambique lived in absolute poverty (defined as “…a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs” at the World Summit for Social Development).  Sofala Province, in which Gorongosa National Park is located, ranked second highest among all of Mozambique’s provinces for absolute poverty of children, with 59% of the children in the province living in absolute poverty, and fourth highest for severe health deprivation, with 17% of the children in Sofala suffering from severe health deprivation.  Clearly, the people of Sofala province are in need of improved access health care as a basic first step to improving their quality of life.

The Gorongosa Restoration Project anticipates constructing as many as 25 more health clinics and 100 schools in communities around the Park during the 20-year life of the project in order to contribute to the great need to improve public health in the region, and is actively seeking donors to support these projects.