By Martin Muleya
Rukariro Rehabilitation Centre located 26km along the Harare Mutare road in the dusty and remote area of Odzi, Manicaland province cares for the disabled and psychiatric patients.
The road to the centre is hardly accessible with no reliable transport plying the route.
Shops are clustered at a nearby growth point, resembling that the area used to be a busy place and abandoned tobacco barns lying idle near the rehabilitation centre.
Rukariro centre uses an old dilapidated farm house and has a population of 30 inmates, 12 males and the rest being females.
These inmates find their way at this ‘new home’ having received the blessing of the department of Social Welfare.
A visit by this reporter at the centre painted a gloomy picture of an almost deserted building where one is greeted by a stinking smell of urine from the blankets hanging on the washing line.
Elizabeth Gobo (33) a pint sized young lady doubles as the matron and caretaker is in charge of the Centre.
As Christmas time beckons neither Gobo nor the inmates were expecting any surprises as they live in the seemingly ‘back of beyond’ habitation.
“I have been working here since 2004 taking care of people living with disabilities’ as well as psychiatric patients. Our centre receives inmates from all over the country and currently we have 30 inmates,” said Gobo.
The matron said the centre has no electricity and they rely on firewood for cooking. She noted that of the inmates that they get from the department of Social Welfare, they do not have donors to assist them with some of the necessities on the day to day living of the inmates.
“We do not have donors who supply us with our needs. We survive on hand on to mouth and our youngsters who are still at school are catered for by the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM). Our patients have medical conditions that require regular supply of food,” she added.
With a seemingly large population of which most of the inhabitants are the elderly, the care centre does not have supporting staff and rely on the efforts of the inmates for performing domestic chores as well.
The young lady further reiterated that they have been allocated a small farm by the Ministry of Lands to augment their food supply as most of the inmates are on medication and require food regularly. She however revealed that together with the inmates they engage in peasantry farming while the youngsters attend lessons at a nearby school, Zvavanhu primary school.
With the food hampers that the care centre received from the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) there were smiles from the inmates.
NSSA public relations officer Annah Vambe said the visit to Rukariro Rehabilitation Centre was premised on practising corporate social responsibility. The donation she said would go a long way as her organization was pouring back to the community that has been supporting them.
“We are pouring back to the community as part of our corporate social responsibility. We brought these food hampers to make sure that these inmates also celebrate Christmas just like everyone out there,” she said.
Surprisingly the institution is said to have the backing of other powerful politicians in Manicaland province but very little has been done to show for this institution that has become a home for the social ‘outcasts’.
Only time will tell!
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