Insights: Patrick Rohr back in Harare
20 Years Newlands Clinic
Patrick Rohr, member of our Patronage Committee, visited the Clinic in March 2024. He is happy about the reunion with both staff and patients. Many of the patients he has photographed in the past have become dear friends.
«Tadiwanashe used to be very ill, and today he is full of life. It’s great to see that patients are getting better and better.»
Patrick Rohr, member of Patronage Committee
Insights: Forgiveness
Even strong women need support
This woman's name is Forgiveness. Despite living with HIV and facing challenges of life in a poor neighborhood in Harare, she remains optimistic. Forgiveness is determined to achieve independence and to ensure her children have a brighter future.
She joined the women's empowerment program in 2022. Starting with a chicken farming project, she moved on to producing peanut butter. Currently, she is training to become a seamstress with the help of a friend. Her goal is to earn a living by sewing school uniforms in the future.
1/4: Forgiveness's laughter is infectious. It’s hard to imagine that for a long time, she had little reason to laugh. She never gave up, even after losing her first husband, the father of her four children, and surviving abuse in her second marriage, which she managed to escape through divorce.
2/4: “I have lost everything, was raped, and completely broken. The Newlands Clinic provided me with medical help, food, clothing, and psychological support. I am so grateful—without the people at the Newlands Clinic, I wouldn’t have survived.”
3/4: Forgiveness lives with three children — one is her own, and two are her sisters’ — in her small hut. Life is modest, but she is proud of her independence and her ability to support herself.
4/4: Forgiveness’s first hut was demolished by the government in 2014. The papers for her second plot of land were destroyed in a fire, leaving her with nothing. Thanks to the income she earned through the women’s empowerment program, she managed to purchase land again on an installment plan and build a wooden hut. She has even purchased bricks to construct a more permanent home.
Our new empowerment project assists seriously vulnerable women who are suffering from HIV. After their recruitment, these women learn the basics to run a business, receive start-up capital and materials. Our team assists HIV-positive women with mentoring and practical tips from the beginning until the establishment of their businesses. Thanks to the support of the Jansen PrimeSteps Foundation, the participants work towards becoming independent businesswomen to provide for their families and give them back a perspective.
Insights: Rumbidzai
Support for a better life
Rumbidzai is a patient at Newlands Clinic for almost 15 years. Being HIV-positive herself, she lost her husband and three of her children because of Aids. The 54-year-old mother is looking after her family all by herself and is providing food to all of them.
«I need to live – who else is looking after my family?»
Rumbi fights every day to make sure that her family survives. She knows how to grow maize thanks to the farming program at Newlands Clinic. She feeds her whole family with the maize she harvests. In the video she is talking about her biggest dream – for her granddaughter to have a better life.
Early in the morning fog is still lying between the huts in the slum Hatcliffe. Rumbidzai puts a green scarf around her head and quietly wakes up her granddaughter Shayleen. She accompanies Shayleen to school by walking two kilometres back and two kilometres forth. Rumbidzai is a patient at Newlands Clinic for 15 years. Aids changed her life. She used to be a teacher and educated kids in school. Now she makes bags and accessoires out of plastic trash to earn a little extra.