By Rex Mphisa
THE International Organisation For Migration (IOM) and the Ministry of Health and Child Care featured prominently with a variety of services at last Sunday’s Ziyah Media Tournament for Secondary Schools .
The collaboration of the two organisations saw free treatment of the vulnerable with women getting access to several healthcare and sexual reproductive services rendered free of charge.
Nhamo Muleya, an IOM offcial, said they were working under a Netherlands Government funded project called ‘HIV knows No Borders’.
This programme focuses on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and HIV prevention and treatment realising it is not limited by national boundaries.
Beitbridge, by its location, handles thousands of travellers between Zimbabwe and South Africa daily.
Migrants, mobile populations, and communities along migration routes should have equal access to services., according to Muleya.
“In collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Child Care we fitted into this tournament, which is an attraction to many people in need,” said Muleya.
The services provide HIV testing and education, cerviac cancer screening and family planning services including provision of long term acting preventive methods.
“We aim at reaching vulnerable groups wherever they are from and this is a pilot project and Beitbridge is among the places in the regionb where the project has started,” he said.
“We have had a good response at the Ziyah Media games and we are considering partnerships with Ziyah Media. We will formally engage the organisation (Ziyah Media) forthis collaboration and partnership,” said Muleya.
A female beneficiary who spoke on condition of anonymity said she had benefitted from services and thanked IOM and MoHCC for their presence.
“Well, I am a single parentand I live in Beitbridge. I have been able to access family planning tablets. Its an open secret we all have sexual needs and at times it happens when you think you have found a permanent lover who runs away when you are pregnant, ” she said.
Another woman said sometimes it is embarrassing to collect HIV drugs at hospital.
“There was some privacy here because everyone is doing their own thing with soccer in the background,” she said.
The SRHR-HIV Knows No Borders (KNB) Project is a regional initiative implemented in Southern Africa by a consortium led by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The project, which began in 2016 and is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, aims to improve sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), including HIV outcomes, for migrants, adolescents, young people, and sex workers.
Muleya said it is being implemented in Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
It works by increasing access to and quality of SRHR-HIV services, generating demand for these services, and creating an enabling environment through policy changes and community engagement.
Thousands of people attended the Ziyah Media hosted girls and boys soccer tournament which also featured Zimbabwe’s soccer icon Peter Ndlovu as an inspiration to the youths.
Several women visited the IOM and Ministry of Heal and Child Care points for services.
in Beitbridge the programme started in 2023.