The peripheral health center in the locality of Moneia. Moneia is located approximately 20 km from Gile town. This center functions as a satellite clinic where a clinical team from Gile district hospital provides HIV testing and treatment services every 2 weeks.
One of the best dirt roads in Gile.
Much of the population in Gile lives in mud huts or improvised shacks like this in the country side.
A typical log bridge in Gile. Due to the abundance of rivulets and streams, there are numerous such bridges all over Gile. The official capacity of the bridges is 5 tonnes.
Curving the land-crusier around a hill, on the way to visit a community health council in a village called Nahoa.
Senor Dambini, my guide and supervisor of the community health councils in Gile, directing our landcruiser across a crude wooden bridge
School children posing for a photograph outside the primary school in the locality of Mamala.
Traveling in a land-cruiser with the FGH team to conduct field visits in Gile.
Dr. Emilio of FGH training the local health staff in Moneia to do blood draws on HIV positive patients for CD4 counts.
Like many of the health centers, the peripheral health unit in the locality of Uape is powered by solar panels that are mounted on the roof. They provide sufficient electricity to run the refrigerator, lights and radio. The solar panels are part of a World Bank project to provide minimum power to run the basic functions of health centers set up by the Ministry of Health.
Inside the periheral health center in Uape locality. Like Moneia, this health center functions as a satellite clinic where HIV testing and treatment is available once every 2 weeks.
The hill-top view from Uape. Like most of Gile, the terrain is mountainous which increases the difficulty of traveling long distances to get healthcare.
One of the nurses at Uape doing bloodwork on an HIV positive patient. The samples have to be collected and transported to Alto Molocue, a different district, for CD4 counts. The results are available after 1 week. Only then can treatment begin.
A child playing outside his mud hut. Typically, families live right next to their fields where they do small-scale farming.
A newly planted field of cassava in Gile. Villagers practice slash and burn subsistence farming to grow maize, beans, cassava and papaya. Although Mozambique is blessed with a generally fertile land, the people lack the technical know-how (for example crop rotation techniques) and the resources to do large-scale or even medium-scale farming.
The solitary ambulance of the Gile district hospital. There is only one ambulance for the entire destrict, an area of 9000 square km and 170,589 people.
A bicycle ambulance at the Gile district hospital. Unfortunately, the state of healthcare infrastructure in the rural areas is so poor that emergency cases are often transported through such means.
Dr. Kizito checking up on a small baby with malaria at the Gile district hospital.
Dr. Kizito standing next to the solar powered water pump at Gile district hospital. With no electricity, some healthcare operations in Gile are now being run on alternative energy sources. These development projects continue to need a lot of support from donors.
Dr. Kizito Gondo, the District Director of Health, showing me the Gile district hospital. The hospital is equipped with a maternity wing, general wards for men, women and children, some consultation and emergency rooms, a pharmacy, a lab and a database room.
Patients waiting to see the doctor at the satellite clinic in Oape. Upto 80 patients are sometimes seen at the clinic, stretching the capacity of the existing healthcare infrastructure at the site.
This distinctive peak marks the entry into the environs of Gile town. It is appropriately named "Mount Gile."
The PEPFAR logo on the side of a land-cruiser belonging to Friends in Global Health (FGH). Their rural HIV/AIDS program in Mozambique is funded largely by PEPFAR funds.
The cluster of tiny consultation rooms at the Gile district hospital. Here, FGH and Ministry of Health staff do general consults, and prescribe antiretroviral treatment to HIV positive patients.
