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Kudakwashe Ruwende and Columbus Mabika
The Gaming and Lotteries Board has donated $8 400 to enable seven-year-old Anotipaishe Matambanashe who lost his male organ to undergo delicate surgical treatment in India after negligent medical practitioners damaged his organ in four failed operations.

The boy’s organs were damaged after the medical practitioners failed to properly handle his umbilical chord at birth.

Secretary for Home Affairs Mr Melusi Matshiya announced the development last Wednesday as he handed air tickets and money to cover hospital treatment to the boy’s mother, Ms Shuvai Matambanashe.

“The recent appeal for the treatment of the seven-year old Anotipaishe far away in Goa made the Gaming and Lotteries Board that is under the Ministry of Home Affairs duty-bound,” he said.

“Since the Lotteries and Gaming Fund provides for money for health, the Lotteries and Gaming Board is extending the sum of $8 400 for air tickets and hospital fees to enable Anotipaishe to get treatment in India.”

The boy will spend a month-and-a-half in India receiving specialist treatment.

Ms Matambanashe thanked the ministry for the support and encouraged other organisations to emulate such efforts.

Anotipaishe was born in 2008 at Zengeza 3 Polyclinic and the mother said a midwife negligently handled her son’s umbilical cord, thus damaging his organ.

Since then, the boy has gone through four operations to rectify his organ and ensure that he passes urine like normal boys of his age.

A Harare-based urologist, who carried out the procedures, completely damaged the minor’s organs forcing the boy to move around in diapers as urine gushed from around his waistline.

Last year, the Gaming and Lotteries Board donated $39 000 for the treatment of 10 patients in India.

The patients had heart, brain, abdominal, hip and eye complications.