By NQOBANI NDLOVU
BULAWAYO civic groups have sent out an appeal for material resources to assist Mpilo Central Hospital doctors who lost their belongings in an inferno that razed down a residential block last week.
About 41 doctors escaped unhurt but all their household property, food, clothing and certificates, among other materials were burnt to ashes.
The value of damaged property is estimated to be US$500 000.
Bulawayo civic groups and churches have come together to mobilise resources to assist the affected doctors in the short term, while also seeking funding to renovate the destroyed building.
“We have put up a flier as organisations to mobilise resources and goods, as well as clothing to help the doctors that are in need.
“We are looking at short-term interventions whereby we are soliciting for clothes, food and toiletries, but in the long term we would want to fundraise to assist, possibly in the refurbishment of the building that was burnt down,” Samukeliso Khumalo, the director of empowerment lobby group, Women Institute of Leadership Development (WILD) said.
“That is the long-term vision of the organisations that are coming together to assist as well as mobilise resources from well-wishers in the country and across the world including our friends and relatives in the diaspora.”
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Government has temporarily housed the affected doctors at Bulawayo Polytechnic.
“We request Zimbabweans, Zimbabwean friends around the country and outside the country to assist in this drive.
“Our doctors have been through a lot during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is our time to come together and give back and show our love to them as people of Bulawayo and as Zimbabweans across the country in general.”
The 1 000-bed Mpilo hospital caters for patients from Bulawayo, Midlands, Matabeleland North and South and Masvingo provinces.
Government has blamed the fire outbreak on lack of maintenance on the 59-year-old building.
Health Care deputy minister John Mangwiro last week said government was seeking funds to renovate the building.
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