I´m writing this mail (at least the draft) from Matopos, where we arrived yesterday and tomorrow we´ll go to Amalinda Camp to stay 1 week…
The situation in Zimbabwe is getting worse (as you probably know, but although the western media tend to exaggerate, it´s really bad) In the way from BYO –for example-we met just 3 cars: there is again shortage of fuel and people cannot use the car. In fact, it´s becoming a problem even for MSF, as in the petrol station are no longer accepting fuel cupons. This issue should be handled by the logisticians, if we had logistician to do it….The immigration authorities have decided to expel the three (including the logco in HRE) next week because they consider that these positions could be covered by national staff….(in the last months Inmigration has become more and more strict with the work permits and we are not allowed to leave the country without them. As not all the expats have it –and the new policies let us travel just in Blue Arrows buses or rented cars- our holidays are reduced to stay in lodges inside the country). This weekend there is a big meeting in HRE to decide what to do about it (2 months ago, when this scenario seemed likely, the head of mission decided to start working in the handover of the project to the MOH…)
As you can see, the future is not clear. 3 months ago I decided to extend until February, but now nobody knows if MSF will stay here in February. The elections-due to be held in March- are “shaking” everything and the responses of the government to the crisis are more and more senseless: trying to control the crazy inflation (now we are paying again in millions with the new currency), the gov has decided to set official prices, dividing by two the current ones. The businessmen and retailers that refuse to follow this law were arrested and/or their shops looted. Result: huge cues to buy bread, basic things like oil, meat, Mazoe,have disappeared from the shops and the black market is growing
In the other hand, as the MOH supplies are more random, and MSF is covering more and more stock ruptures, it was decided to stop starting new patients on treatment since next month (UBH, Khami and most of the OI Clinics around the country took this decission months ago) It means that we have moved from the “scaling up” (and those 3 clinics that we were supposed to open this year) to the “scaling down” (Pascal, the TESACO from BCN came in April to tell them this) and from there to the complete stop. And I don´t think it´s just MOH or BCC´s fault. MSF has also its responsibility and the whole process has diminished my “faith” in MSF unable to understand how the strategy has changed so drastically (nobody foresaw that it could happened? Who assessed the capacity of BCC to open 3 clinics in 1 year when they can nor cope even with the descentralized patients???
One month ago -I continue with the lists of complaints- MSF sent 2 psychologists to the field to evaluate the stress of the national staff (because the expats told to Pascal that there was no special need in this project for psychological support and that our stress was more related to the constraints to move out of the country, the “apathy” of the staff (MOH or BCC), the amount of visitors that didn´t let us rest and our pathetic salary (well, the last 2 come from my side….) Anyway, the psychologists were sent, had personal interviews with all the expats (it´s amazing how relaxed you can become after taking out all your anger and frustrations…)and reassured the national staff about their rights working with MSF (Apparently they were concerned about the case of Obert, that was fired for coming to work drunk and the staff said it was for speaking out….) The right that I don´t end up getting is why their salaries are 50 times the average of someone working for the MOH with similar qualification…
The situation in Zimbabwe is getting worse (as you probably know, but although the western media tend to exaggerate, it´s really bad) In the way from BYO –for example-we met just 3 cars: there is again shortage of fuel and people cannot use the car. In fact, it´s becoming a problem even for MSF, as in the petrol station are no longer accepting fuel cupons. This issue should be handled by the logisticians, if we had logistician to do it….The immigration authorities have decided to expel the three (including the logco in HRE) next week because they consider that these positions could be covered by national staff….(in the last months Inmigration has become more and more strict with the work permits and we are not allowed to leave the country without them. As not all the expats have it –and the new policies let us travel just in Blue Arrows buses or rented cars- our holidays are reduced to stay in lodges inside the country). This weekend there is a big meeting in HRE to decide what to do about it (2 months ago, when this scenario seemed likely, the head of mission decided to start working in the handover of the project to the MOH…)
As you can see, the future is not clear. 3 months ago I decided to extend until February, but now nobody knows if MSF will stay here in February. The elections-due to be held in March- are “shaking” everything and the responses of the government to the crisis are more and more senseless: trying to control the crazy inflation (now we are paying again in millions with the new currency), the gov has decided to set official prices, dividing by two the current ones. The businessmen and retailers that refuse to follow this law were arrested and/or their shops looted. Result: huge cues to buy bread, basic things like oil, meat, Mazoe,have disappeared from the shops and the black market is growing
In the other hand, as the MOH supplies are more random, and MSF is covering more and more stock ruptures, it was decided to stop starting new patients on treatment since next month (UBH, Khami and most of the OI Clinics around the country took this decission months ago) It means that we have moved from the “scaling up” (and those 3 clinics that we were supposed to open this year) to the “scaling down” (Pascal, the TESACO from BCN came in April to tell them this) and from there to the complete stop. And I don´t think it´s just MOH or BCC´s fault. MSF has also its responsibility and the whole process has diminished my “faith” in MSF unable to understand how the strategy has changed so drastically (nobody foresaw that it could happened? Who assessed the capacity of BCC to open 3 clinics in 1 year when they can nor cope even with the descentralized patients???
One month ago -I continue with the lists of complaints- MSF sent 2 psychologists to the field to evaluate the stress of the national staff (because the expats told to Pascal that there was no special need in this project for psychological support and that our stress was more related to the constraints to move out of the country, the “apathy” of the staff (MOH or BCC), the amount of visitors that didn´t let us rest and our pathetic salary (well, the last 2 come from my side….) Anyway, the psychologists were sent, had personal interviews with all the expats (it´s amazing how relaxed you can become after taking out all your anger and frustrations…)and reassured the national staff about their rights working with MSF (Apparently they were concerned about the case of Obert, that was fired for coming to work drunk and the staff said it was for speaking out….) The right that I don´t end up getting is why their salaries are 50 times the average of someone working for the MOH with similar qualification…
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