Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

That last two weeks have been busy at the hospital treating patients and going out for outreach to draw blood on our kids in our research project.   Many of you have asked about the research and so I am going to give you a short summary that was written by one of the researchers: Community Based Antiretroviral Therapy (CBART) Project At   Chidamoyo Christian Hospital- Hurungwe District, Mashonaland West Province Implemented by Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI) February 2018-January 2020 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI) is a not-for-profit making research and training institution founded in 1995 to promote the health and quality of life of the peoples of Africa through research and training in the field of biomedicine. Zimbabwe, like other Member States of Southern Africa Development Community (SAD

After seeing off most of the US visitors on Sunday the 28 th of January, I returned home to Chidamoyo to welcome on Tuesday our research team from Harare.   Nine people arrived and stayed through Friday morning.   We had David from Stanford, CA and Dr. Anat from Tel Aviv, Israel and then 7 people from BRTI Laboratories in Harare that are helping us with the research. Our research proposal is to study our 21 and unders on ART medication for AIDS.   We went on our first run at Chiroti outreach center on Thursday the 1 st of February and drew 22 kids.   We worked out a lot of kinks in what we have to do—get consents signed, draw blood and do urines on all kids and give them their medications.   It was a cloudy day and started to rain in a very holy roofed shed.   Dr. Anat was holding an umbrella over me while I drew meds for a while!   Quite exciting. The team left Friday morning and left Happiness from BRTI to work with our lab to do the tests on the bloods.   She stayed until t

The week leading up to our 50 th Anniversary celebration was full of joy in seeing old friends return to celebrate with us.   On the 16 th of January we welcomed Bill and Reba Harrison and their daughter Julie.   They served at Chidamoyo from 1972-1977 then in Harare from 1978-81.   Julie was just 4 years old when they came.   They had not been at Chidamoyo since 1981 so they enjoyed seeing all the changes and seeing how large the plants and trees and grown around their old house and the mission. On the 17 th we welcomed 2 students from Illinois (via University of Kentucky) Claire and Erin who have come to spend a month with us.   Claire is working towards becoming a Physician Assistant and Erin a Medical Social Worker.   They have been busy learning Shona, making rounds and helping with outreach clinics and our research projects with kids. On the 18 th of January we welcomed Ziden and Helen Nutt and their grown children, Tom and Carolyn.   Ziden and Helen were the first m