From brink of death to advocate of rights

today and what the future holds for him and the community at large.
“I was once a cop in the city and hotels like this one were nothing new to me. I was a womaniser and my wife Felistas was nothing to me. I would not even look or appreciate her as I was the town playboy who had the city in his hands,” said Mr Rangwani during the ZIPAH launch last week.
“As fate would have it, I got ill and was discharged from the police force and with no home in the city to call mine, I relocated to the place of my wife’s birth, Mhondoro, as an ailing man with a wife and family,” said Mr Rangwani.
“Then my wife was pregnant and as required she went to St Michael’s to register for the antenatal clinic where she was asked to take an HIV test. She tested HIV positive and, to make matters worse, she was not feeling well. I went to the hospital and was mad. I confronted the now late Dr Bourghiani on who had given her the permission to test my wife,” he added.
“This was just rabid barking from an incensed man. Our health continued to deteriorate and there were no ARVs in 2000. I would go to St Michael’s Hospital and spy on who ever I saw and suspected to be HIV positive,” said Mr Rangwani who is talkative by nature.
“I would then approach them and tell them that I was also sick and wanted us to form a support group, that is how we started a network of 17 people living positively in 2002,” he added.
“I told myself and members of the support group that we would live until some medication was found, that was our conviction,” said Mr Rangwani.
Mr Rangwani said they approached Chief Murambwa, who like a father felt the devastating effects of HIV ravishing his community and he gave them land.
“We had a purpose but we did not have the inputs and when ARVs first came, our group of 17 was the first to be enrolled at St Michael’s Hospital since we were already on their register,” he said.
Mr Rangwani said he owes his life to a man who was dedicated to helping them then when they ran out of food and even school fees.
“I owe my life to my MP, Mr Bright Matonga, not only did he come to our rescue by giving us food handouts, he brought a team of his friends in the medical field and conducted outreach programmes for the community. With HIV decimating the population back then, he embraced us and with the help of St Michael’s Hospital staff and Dr Prosper Chonzi from Harare, these great people saved us in our hour of need, thanks to Mr Matonga,” he said.
Today Simbarashe Network is gone national and has          3 900 members. Simbarashe saw discrimination and stigma melting away as the Mhondoro community at large stopped blaming witchcraft when one got ill but was ready to get tested.
Mr Rangwani, a proponent of the rights of those living positively, worked together with the community leadership of Chief Murambwa, all the other headman under the chief’s jurisdiction and Mr Matonga.
I got the chance to catch up with Mr Matonga, who attended the ZIPAH launch as a member, and spoke to him on the sidelines of the launch.
Mr Matonga said his involvement with the Mhondoro community’s wellness programme stemmed from the fact that he had lost those he loved and he wanted to make a difference to those who brought him up.
Personal experiences usually draw one to get close to an occurrence but with time one heals and the passion fizzles out. As one would expect of politicians, after clinching the seat and they are safe, they relax and recline in the comfort of their homes far from the madding crowd for their term in office.
Mr Matonga’s passion has stood the test of time as he still is actively involved in wellness outreach programmes for Mhondoro-Ngezi constituency.
Mr Matonga said his community involvement is founded on the loss he suffered some years back.
“My drive and passion to mitigate in the spread of HIV comes from the fact that I lost my sister who looked after me. She was more of a parent. She had sent me to school, so when she succumbed to an Aids-related illness I found myself drawing close to those afflicted and affected as I personally knew how they felt,” said the MP.
“I also lost close relatives and friends and this got me thinking and it became the driving force to my passion to get to grassroots involvement for people living with HIV and the general wellness of my community,” he said.
The road that Mhondoro-Ngezi has traversed has been long and Simbarashe Network is judged as the best practice nationally on HIV and Aids response and mitigation.
Simbarashe together with Mr Matonga have carried out awareness campaigns and urged all to know their status. Mr Matonga said when one falls ill usually the traditional route is taken but because of the campaigns the constituency has undergone people now get tested early.
“When one gets ill, the traditional route is usually taken, there is a cause — either mombe yehumai or witchcraft is blamed. People lose livestock and money yet the cause is simple, it’s one’s immunity that is lost so one needs to get examined. We have urged people to get tested and this has seen Aids-related deaths going down in the last three years in my constituency,” said Mr Matonga.
“In my outreach programmes I do not preach violence. It is awareness and wellness with no political affiliation, everyone is welcome. Our programmes have been so successful that we have had people stand up in public and disclose that they are HIV positive. These are healthy people and this has been the pull-factor because others have followed suit and have been tested and today they are not secretive about their HIV status,” said Mr Matonga.
“It is voluntary disclosure and no one has been forced. People are open about being on the ARV programme and this has seen stigma being a thing of the past in Mhondoro,” he added.
Mr Matonga said a healthy community is a happy family and this has seen Mhondoro growing in leaps and bounds.
“A family that knows its HIV status does not trade insults, when they get ill they get treated. There are no weaknesses and restrictions as each one’s potential is reached to maximum. We have projects for all in the community not just those living positively,” he said.
On the developmental aspect of wellness, Simbarashe Centre became a focal point as child-headed families and orphaned and vulnerable children were all documented and this made it easier to help out.
“Mr Rangwani has been an advocate of community’s general wellness and he recently went around the community making an update on orphans who were out of school. Someone aged 10 had not even attended school for a day and this was difficult to integrate them in the public schools. He recommended that a special school for these children be opened up and this was made possible with help from our partners,” said Mr Matonga.
“A special school opened doors two weeks ago and has trained staff and we are proud to say these are children from Mhondoro taking up responsibility in the community,” he said.
“With the use of the Constituency Development Fund, resources from donors, Zimplats, Nestle Zimbabwe (milk for the undernourished), the EU, the French Embassy and the Ministry of Health our community has been transformed for the better,” said Mr Matonga.
“That we have been judged as the best practice has not been an event for us, it has been a process and we continue to further it,” he added.
“The community has had a buy-in in all the projects we have had in poultry, farming, dressmaking, carpentry and for the youths we have them engaged at Zimplats for all the general hands work so no outsiders can do that,” he said.
“This has seen every household at least having some meaningful involvement in a developmental project of some sort or has a child employed in the mine or end service delivery thereby cutting down unemployment levels,” he said.
“We have a sustainable agricultural trust that has sourced inputs to the tune of US$1,5 million during the last three years and this is held accountably by the trust.
“We were lucky to be the first beneficiary of the national 10 percent share ownership trust which will further see development taken a step further,” he proudly said.
“We no longer have to beg for resources but we now own the means and we have to fully utilise this for the betterment of the community,” said Mr Matonga.
Mr Matonga said their books, run by the community’s trust, are open for inspection as they are transparent and all their dealings are above board.
For all the other communities still grappling with HIV issues of stigma and discrimination, pay Simbarashe Centre a visit. No need for a booking either; for community leaders take a leaf from Chief Murambwa and Mr Matonga’s spirited efforts.
When a community pulls in one direction, the results are living proof of the projects’ success.

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