Through the vision of Sr. Noreen Nolan of the Little Company of Mary, Mashambanzou Care Trust was founded in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1989.
Noreen saw how people infected with HIV were stigmatised, rejected and discriminated against. Her aim was to offer comfort and reassurance to people living with AIDS and their family members, enhancing the quality of their lives and enabling them to die with dignity and the knowledge that they were loved.
From Noreen's noble and humble vision, gradually grew the multifaceted organisation, Mashambanzou, as we know it today.
* The initial prevention and care activities of the Trust included education and awareness-raising in schools and workplaces.
* An 11-bed Palliative Care Unit was initially set up at St. Anne's Hospital in Avondale.
* Mashambanzou later opened its own Care Unit in Waterfalls.
* Mashambanzou currently offers holistic health
care through six interlinked community outreach programmes.
* Mashambanzou operates in the poorest suburbs of Harare.
JOHN
“I had lost hope. I was 42 and had severe oral thrush, I could not eat well and had lost weight. I thought I was not going to last another week of life.
Mashambanzou Home-based Care team came to my house. They counselled me and I was able to disclose my status to my children. I got treated and was later admitted into the Care Unit at Mashambanzou in Waterfalls. It took two weeks for me to respond to treatment. I gained weight, the oral thrush disappeared, my appetite returned and sleepless nights became a thing of the past.
Thanks to Mashambanzou I am now on the feeding scheme, my children are taking good care of me and they seem to be coping well with our situation.”