Acacia gold mine of the North Mara has funded a project aimed at providing free mobile medical clinic to women and children from eleven villages surrounding the mining area.
The gold mine has teamed up with the Mara Regional Hospital, Marie Stopes Tanzania and Medical Women Association of Tanzania (MEWATA) and other professional medical practitioners that will provide free medical check-ups mainly to rural women as the investors cooperate social responsibilities to her neighbours.
Speaking yesterday to inaugurate the project here acting Mara regional medical officer, Dr Omary Gamuya said last year 1000 women were diagnosed with advanced symptoms of cervical cancer and said most cases went unreported thus a call for urgent measures to curb the situation.
He said they have teamed up with other stakeholders to provide free medical check-ups in the villages surrounding the mine and expressed gratitude to the mining company for providing over 200m/- this year to fund the initial stages of the project.
Other non-communicable diseases that will be encountered during the first week of the implementation include diabetes, eye-operation, mouth impairment and HIV/AIDS and also counseling.
''In some male dominated culture most fathers are ignorant to keep a close supervision of their spouses during and after pregnancies and as a result the non-communicable diseases are not diagnosed at initial stages to be treated as early as possible'', he said.
MEWATA lake zone chairman, Dr Rehema Yona said the institution has also started other similar projects in Mwanza, Shinyanga and Geita in collaboration with Acacia company aimed at supporting most vulnerable patients who cannot easily access better distant clinics.
She said good quality health services can be reached by starting with mobile clinics due to the recent experienced medical and drug scarcity in public health centres and asked other stakeholders to follow suit.
Acacia mine manager Garry Chapman said the mine has an obligation to return back investment in the fields of education and health to help local communities get better social services. He said their utmost vision is to attain a win-win situation between the mine and local people to help them feel the fruits of investment that can easily be brought back through their basic social needs and health being the priority.
Source: Guardian
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