Tendai Rupapa

Over the years, First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa’s work  through her Angel of Hope Foundation has touched the lives of vulnerable children, girls, women and men in Zimbabwe’s communities

In 2019, the Government of Zimbabwe, through its Health and Child Care Ministry, made Dr Mnangagwa the Health and Child Care ambassador to honour the work she is doing in support of the ministry.

Dr Mnangagwa has scored remarkable achievements as the country’s health ambassador.

She has been championing and leading programmes that are to do with health across the country and moving around with her Angel of Hope Foundation’s mobile clinic conducting free cancer screening, medical checks and treatment.

Amai Mnangagwa has  worked hard to ensure people in all communities are screened and checked for ailments including non-communicable diseases on time to curb unnecessary loss of lives and ensure people go on treatment early to save lives.

Regular health checks help identify early warning signs of diseases such as cancers that can be picked up in their early stages and treated.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, she risked her own life as she spread awareness on the disease to communities and shared ideas on keeping it at bay.

Dr Mnangagwa’s love and commitment have however, not gone unnoticed.

She is indeed a champion, who has done so much work, whose list is long.

On January 23, this year, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko donated an ultra-modern, top-notch mobile hospital to the First Lady’s Angel of Hope Foundation in a development expected to enhance her capacity to serve disadvantaged communities in all corners of the country, including hard-to-reach areas.

The donation was a culmination of the meeting the First Lady had with President Lukashenko on the sidelines of engagements she had with Belarusian institutions that had invited her to that country in recognition of her philanthropic work and efforts to transform the lives of vulnerable members of the community.

The gesture also indicates that the First Lady’s philanthropic work has captured the imagination of the world.

As the health and childcare ambassador of Zimbabwe and the patron of Angel of Hope Foundation, in collaboration with Belarusian institutions, she facilitated the training of a group of healthcare professionals from Zimbabwe in the use of advanced mammography equipment, ultrasound and radioactive machinery.

Again, countless training scholarships have been unlocked for Zimbabwean doctors, nurses and mentorship for media partners to improve their critical role in effective community awareness, thus breaking the infertility stigma thanks to her partnership with Merck Foundation, a philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany.

The partnership has provided over 100 scholarships to doctors drawn from the country’s 10 provinces in many critical specialties and under-served disciplines as part of a drive to transform healthcare quality and allow equitable access for all.

Areas the doctors are studying include fertility and embryology, oncology, diabetes, preventive cardiovascular, endocrinology, sexual and reproductive care, respiratory medicine, acute medicine, and clinical microbiology and infectious diseases, neonatal care, and psychiatry, among others.

The donation by President Lukashenko will place the country among nations capable of dispensing advanced medical care to people.

During the handover ceremony, President Mnangagwa thanked his counterpart for his efforts to make Zimbabwe a provider of first class health services.

He added that it was through the First Lady’s hard work that President Lukashenko had availed the First World medical equipment to Zimbabwe.

“This donation to Angel of Hope Foundation, a donation to the First Lady of Zimbabwe Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa is a donation to Zimbabwe through the Angel of Hope. Today we are witnessing an event where in terms of access to state-of-the-art medical care leapfrogs Zimbabwe to the First World. I have no doubt that our First Lady will avail this facility to all our 10 provinces so that our people may have access to the state-of-the-art medical care now existent in the world. Congratulations madam. It is through you and your work that has enabled my dear brother President Lukashenko to avail this First World medical equipment to Zimbabwe,” he said.

The Belarusian President sent a special message to the First Lady which was delivered by Professor Irina Abelskaia, medical director of the State Institution of Belarus.

“Your Excellency First Lady of the Republic of Zimbabwe Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa, Your Excellency, it is a pleasure to address you to confirm that all the agreements reached during your visit to Belarus in April 2023 are being implemented and your work aimed at improving the quality of basic medical care and health standards of unprotected social groups as well as protecting the rights of women and children was defined as one of the strongest areas of our cooperation.

“The Belarusian side is pleased to hand over the mobile screening unit to the Angel of Hope Foundation. I am convinced that this will be the first significant step that will bring quality care closer to women in different parts of your country,” he said.

Amai Mnangagwa said the transfer of this state-of-the-art equipment from Belarus is set to improve the detection of breast cancer cases in the country

“Mammography is the best way of detecting all types of breast cancer as it increases the detection of small abnormal tissue growths in the breast.

“This means that cancer will be detected at an early stage and reduce the risk of mortality due to breast cancer. The mobile hospital also consists of an ultrasound scan, gynaecological machinery and a radiation machine,” she said.

The First Lady said the mobile hospital will go a long way in benefiting the nation at large as is reflected by one of the pinnacles of Angel of Hope Foundation which is the accessibility of healthcare to all.

Ensuring the well-being of citizens is the First Lady’s goal.

As rural residents often encounter barriers to healthcare services that limit their ability to obtain the care they need, Amai Mnangagwa is working flat out through her AOH Foundation to bridge the gap and see to it that they access quality healthcare just like urbanites.

Two years ago, using her personal savings, she built a health post in her birthplace of Chiweshe offering outpatient, maternal and child health services.

Through her AOH Foundation’s partnership with her friend Mrs Jeannie Burns Buckner, Matter Foundation and Love for Africa, they built an ultra-modern hospital in Chisizya, Binga.

In addition, she is currently building a hospital for mothers and children in Harare which is still under construction. 

Through her Angel of Hope Foundation, she has also constructed several mothers waiting shelters around the country.

Expectant mothers in hard to reach areas, were used to home deliveries, which compromised their health and that of the newborn children. But things have now changed for the better as she has built mothers’ waiting shelters for them.

Working with the Ministry of Health and Child Care, she has and still mobilises resources for clinics and hospitals around the country.

Recently, hundreds of people from across the country received free cataract operations at Sekuru Kaguvi Eye Unit at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, courtesy of cooperation between the First Lady’s Angel of Hope Foundation and the Palestinian International Cooperation Agency (PICA) which brought in Palestinian medical experts to work with local doctors for the benefit of the people.

Herself, certified in industrial basic first aid from the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society, the First Lady performed first eye dressing on some of the patients where she cleaned the eyes with swabs and saline before dropping medication.

She removed bandages from their eyes signalling the completion of a successful operation.

All these projects demonstrate the First Lady’s love for mankind.

Her work speaks for itself and many will live to admire, emulate and forever remember the impact. – Herald