The ManicaPost
Fungayi Munyoro Post Correspondent
MORE than 2 000 men and women including youths gathered at Mafararikwa High School last Wednesday to take part in the inaugural Marange District health fair organised by National Aids Council and partner organisations.
The targeted wards included Nyachityu, Mafararikwa A, Mafararikwa B and Buwerimwe.
Partner organisations were allocated slots to talk about their organisation and the services they offer.
According to Mutare District Aids co-ordinator, Mr Willard Mudzikati, the objective of the programme was to ensure that through sports, male take up health related services.
Mr Mudzikati said the event was successful.
“The main objective of the event was to gather men through sport. Men hardly attend such gatherings, but we had to use sport as the bait.
I can say the event was a success.
We partnered with organisations such as SAFAIDS and OPHID.
We also had other partners that managed to attend the event and offer their services.
We had organisations such as Youth Alive, AFRICAID, ZNNP, Traffic, FHI360, New Start, FACT, Ministry of Sports and DOMCCP. A total of 93 males and 103 females managed to receive health services from these partners.
Male participation in this strategic area was 60 percent. About 50 males visited the doctor as compared to 29 females.
A total of four males got circumcised on the day. SAFAIDS also rolled HIV prevention sessions and gender-based violence sessions, reaching out to 440 males.
“National Aids Council sensitised males and females on STIs and condom programming.
A total of 1 800 participants were reached during the STI awareness campaign.
In other words, we managed to reach out to more male as we wanted,” he said.
Participants took part in various sporting disciplines which include soccer, volleyball, snooker, track events, darts, tsoro, chess and draft.
In soccer, Buwerimwe dismissed Mafararikwa A 3-4 on penalty shoot out. In volleyball, Nyachityu were the winners followed by Buwerimwe, Mafararikwa A and lastly Mafararikwa B.
In pool, Buwerimwe dominated.
All the winning teams in each discipline walked away with medals.
Speaking after the fair, Mafararikwa headman, Mr Abraham Mafararikwa, said the number of men who attended was so encouraging.
“We hardly gather men like this. Men came in their numbers and it was so encouraging.
The programmes benefited them so well. They came and participated in various sporting disciplines and had their health checked.
Various sporting disciplines were introduced and we hope to have this on a quarterly basis. We had Takarwa Ward which came uninvited. They organised themselves and brought their teams.
This is a good event and even ladies benefited too,” he said.
Mutare District Medical Officer, Dr Admire Maravanyika, said the numbers were so encouraging.
“The main idea was to bring communities together using sport as an attraction.
People came and played various sports, but we took it as an opportunity to bring health services.
We provided BP checks, HIV testing, TB screening and diabetes screening among others.
It was all about bringing in health packages to a community where they can socialise and have fun.
The reason why we are doing it in Mafararikwa is because we are looking at the apostolic sect community given their less frequency visit to the clinics.
We thought that by bringing the services outside the facility into the community will probably attract one or two of them.
“This is the first event in the district. Women and children came in support of this event,” he said.
