By Hilda Sena
A quiet but powerful revolution is taking place in Zimbabwe’s health system and it began with only eighty people in a room.
In Harare and Bulawayo this week,doctors,nurses and pharmacists have gathered for a special training programme called Clinical Updates in Diabetes: Train the Trainer.
Their mission is not only to improve their own skills.It is to return to their workplaces and pass those skills on to others.
One person learns.Many people benefit.
The sessions are being led by experts from Harvard Medical School,the University of Cape Town and the University of Zimbabwe.For two full days, they are sharing the latest knowledge on how to detect, treat and manage diabetes.
Diabetes in Zimbabwe is no longer a minor problem.It is growing rapidly and affecting families in towns,villages and cities across the country.
In many clinics,the story is the same. Patients arrive early,wait for hours and leave still struggling to control their blood sugar.
Zimbabwe cannot rely on foreign aid to solve this problem. With USAID funding withdrawn and treatment costs continuing to rise, the solution must come from within.
That is why this training is so important.
Speaking in Harare,Professor Joel Dave from the University of Cape Town said Africa must prepare for many more cases of diabetes in the coming years.He explained that the only way to cope is to build a strong team of local trainers who can spread knowledge quickly.
Dr Trust Zaranyika,who leads Internal Medicine at the University of Zimbabwe, described the programme as a “very,very huge occasion” for Zimbabwe.
He is not exaggerating.
Consider this If each of the eighty trainees teaches just twenty colleagues, that will be 1,600 health workers with new skills.If those 1,600 each help their own patients, thousands of lives will change.
This is how a revolution begins not with noise,but with knowledge passed from one person to another.
In Zimbabwe,the fight against diabetes is no longer only about medicine.It is about multiplication.
Train one. Save many.