03/06/2026
NEWS | *Tears, relief, and hope at Bulawayo mobile clinic*
BULAWAYO – Three nurses held him carefully as they lifted his frail body out of the vehicle and guided him into the mobile clinic stationed at eBusteni in Cowdray Park.
His wife, 48-year-old Dzamisai Chipepera, walked closely beside him, anxious and exhausted after spending a week watching her husband deteriorate at home without treatment because they could not afford consultation fees or transport costs to a conventional health facility.
For Chipepera, the scene unfolding before her inside the mobile healthcare facility was one she says she had almost stopped believing was possible in Zimbabwe’s strained public healthcare environment.
“I came here today with my husband because he is not feeling well. I was received very well, and I was not expecting it,” she said.
“I was worried about who was going to help me with my husband because I came alone, but two workers quickly came to assist me. They helped each other carry him inside, and he got the help he needed.”
What struck her most was not only the speed with which healthcare workers responded, but the dignity with which they handled a man too weak to help himself.
“The doctor was here, asked him some questions, and attended to him. I thought I was going to wait in a queue, as we see in some hospitals, to the extent that some people end up dying while waiting in line,” she said.
“You end up feeling sad for the person you have brought for medical attention, but I did not see that here.”
Her husband had gone an entire week without proper medical attention because the family could not afford the fees required at local facilities.
“A whole week, and I could not afford the fees to get his clinic card stamped,” she said.
That reality, where financially vulnerable households delay seeking treatment until conditions become critical, is precisely the gap Zimbabwe’s growing mobile healthcare model is trying to close.
During a media tour organised by the National AIDS Council (NAC), journalists witnessed firsthand how healthcare on wheels is transforming access to medical services in some of Bulawayo’s most underserved communities.
Stationed at eBusteni in Cowdray Park, the mobile clinic operated by Zimbos Abantu Healthcare on Wheels has become a critical access point for residents who would otherwise struggle to reach conventional health facilities because of distance, transport costs or consultation fees.
Inside the compact but fully functional mobile unit, residents moved steadily between consultations, screening services, and treatment points, while healthcare workers attended to patients with clinical efficiency rarely associated with temporary outreach facilities.
For Chipepera, the experience fundamentally altered her perception of what mobile healthcare could achieve.
“When I arrived, I saw a lot of people and thought the line was too long. I wondered what I was going to do, but I was surprised by how quickly they attended to him,” she said.
“Even he himself seemed to be feeling better, even though he was still unwell. It was because of the way the nurses and doctors were treating him. I did not see them showing any disgust towards him.”
Her relief became even more apparent when discussing something many patients often take for granted, access to a doctor’s prescription.
“What I believe is most important is the doctor’s prescription. A lot of people are dying in their homes because they do not have prescriptions,” she said.
“If you do not have a prescription, you can not buy medicine over the counter. The prescription is very important, and they gave it to me. I can now go and buy the medication.”
She said the service removed financial barriers that had kept her husband untreated for days.
“The way he was attended to, even his clinical card, I was not asked to pay for it. It was stamped for free first,” she said.
“They first wrote his medication prescription, and what they did not have is what they then go and buy.”
In communities where many households survive on fragile incomes, healthcare expenses often compete directly with food, rent, and transport costs. For some families, simply traveling to a clinic can become an impossible expense.
Chipepera said neighbors had encouraged her to bring her husband to the mobile clinic after hearing about the services being offered there.
“They told me I should just look for transport money and bring him here. They said people are medically assisted here, and they get better,” she said.
“I have now seen it for myself.”
Her husband still needed injections and medication, but for the first time in a week, she said she felt hopeful.
“He has not yet started taking his medication, but I am happy, and I have faith that he will be fine,” she said.
“Even the driver of the car we came with asked if we had already been attended to, and I said yes. He asked, ‘With that long queue?’ and I said yes.”
The mobile healthcare initiative is being implemented through a partnership between Zimbos Abantu Healthcare on Wheels and the National AIDS Council under NAC’s social contracting program funded through the AIDS Levy.
Zimbos Abantu Healthcare on Wheels chief executive officer Tawanda Mushawedu said the intervention was designed around four critical pillars: accessibility, affordability, quality healthcare, and inclusivity.
“We are a healthcare service provider offering primary healthcare through mobile clinics,” Mushawedu said.
“We are pleased to have started operations in 2021, and we now have 12 mobile clinics.”
He said many communities remain underserved and located far from public health institutions, forcing residents to travel long distances or abandon seeking treatment altogether.
“We are filling that gap while also focusing on affordability by providing cost-effective healthcare services within these communities,” he said.
“At the moment, services in Cowdray Park are being subsidised by the National AIDS Council through the AIDS Levy.”
According to Mushawedu, the intervention is also reducing transport costs for vulnerable families, many of whom previously had to spend up to US$2 on a one-way trip to access healthcare services.
“Our mobile clinics are meant to bridge that gap, helping households save money while also providing free medical services and medical devices to the communities we serve,” he said.
The scale of the program’s reach is already becoming visible.
Mushawedu said more than 10,800 patients have received free medical consultations in the past nine months alone, while over 8,000 people have undergone free blood pressure screening.
The program has also provided STI screening services to more than 600 patients, prostate cancer screening to close to 500 men, and rapid blood sugar tests to more than 6,600 beneficiaries.
“In Bulawayo, we are currently operating in Cowdray Park and Emganwini,” Mushawedu said.
“Beyond Bulawayo, we also have operations in Harare and parts of Mashonaland East.”
For residents like Chipepera, however, the statistics only tell part of the story.
The real measure of the programme’s impact is found in moments such as the one witnessed at eBusteni, where healthcare workers gently carried a critically ill man into a mobile clinic while his wife watched in disbelief that help had finally arrived.
Some residents may still question whether healthcare delivered from a vehicle can match conventional hospitals, but Chipepera has already formed her own conclusion.
“It is actually more helpful than a building,” she said.
“I got my prescription here for free, so the prescription is very, very important.”
_Reporting by_ *Anesu Masamvu in Bulawayo*
