RUNDU – Despite having an anti-retroviral clinic, residents of the remote Karukuvisa village have to wait for nurses who only visit the clinic from time to time to provide services due to lack of transport.

Because it is not being used, the prefabricated structure has fallen into disrepair and bushes and grass are growing all over the facility.

Villagers have to hitchhike or travel far by horse or donkey or even walk to other health facilities when they need medication. The nearest clinic, Gcwatjinga is 50km and Rundu is more than 140km away.

The community recently questioned why the clinic is not serving them. 

“It was usually used by our outreach programme. But due to the shortage of transport in the region, our outreach services are hindered most of the time,” said the Kavango West health director Fransica Hamutenya. 

“The facility at Karukuvisa is meant for ART, dispensing of medication on an outreach basis,’’ she said on Thursday.

According to the residents, the outreach team has not visited them for the past three years.

When New Era visited the area, the Rera Nyime and Zadang communities, who are not far from Karukuvisa, suggested the health ministry station a nurse at the Karukuvisa facility.

The nurse will cater to their other health needs apart from ART because as it stands, they have to travel long distances to get healthcare services.

Many of the villagers are pensioners who have no form of transport.

“I want to know why is this clinic at Karukuvisa not operational. Why should we always go to Gcwatjinga or Ncaute clinics that are far? Why did they come built it without using it? They must operate it so that some of us who have no transport can make use of it,” said Annamarry Newaka from Zadang village, a village in the catchment area of the Karukuvisa clinic.

Hamutenya said Karukuvisa has community healthcare workers. 

“The staff establishment doesn’t make provision for a nurse for CBART. The outreach team used to visit the village from time to time,” she said.

Emilie Karora from Rera Nyime believes that if the clinic has a nurse stationed at Karukuvisa, they can get help there and not travel long distances to Rundu and other areas. 

“We have kids and pensioners but for three years now the clinic has not visited us. If we are ill, we hike to Rundu. There is a health extension worker at Zadang and Karukuvisa but they never reach us, they are always out of medication when we go to them and we are forced to go elsewhere,” she said.

jmuyamba@nepc.com.na