By 
By Ross Moyo
ZimSmart Villages says Zimbabwe’s high mobile penetration can be used to reduce the distance between rural communities and health professionals if telecoms infrastructure is paired with local health outreach.
The view was shared in Mutasa District during a medical outreach supported by NetOne under its NetOne @30 Medical Outreach Initiative.
The programme is being implemented jointly by NetOne and ZimSmart Villages and is expected to cover 30 districts nationally, reaching approximately 90,000 households at an average of 3,000 households per district.
While NetOne provided the anchor support for the rollout as part of its 30th anniversary Health and Care pillar, ZimSmart Villages is providing the community technology model that links connectivity to health access.
ZimStart Chief Operations Officer Tawanda Kanjerere said “the Mutasa outreach shows how technology becomes relevant when it solves access challenges.”
“Technology only becomes meaningful when it solves a real problem for people. Through our collaboration with NetOne, we are using connectivity as a bridge between rural communities and healthcare professionals, helping bring healthcare closer to the people,” Kanjerere said.
He said the partnership is also piloting telemedicine and digital-health linkages to allow communities to access information and referrals without travelling long distances, a model that could be scaled if supported by reliable connectivity, basic devices and community health education.
NetOne Public Relations Manager Ernest Magadzire said “the operator’s role was to ensure that three decades of building a network translates into tangible benefits beyond calls and data.”
“When a mother can access healthcare closer to home, when a child receives care, when a family receives information that can protect their health — that is connectivity making a difference. That is what we mean when we say we want to go beyond connectivity,” he said.
The outreach in Mutasa was attended by Minister of Defence Hon. Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri and Minister of State for Manicaland Hon. Mugadza.
ZimSmart Villages said the next test for the model will be continuity — ensuring that one-day screening and referral activities are followed by information flows, follow-ups and linkage to local health facilities through its village-based platforms, with NetOne’s network as the backbone.
The initiative is aligned to Vision 2030 and NDS2 goals on human capital and access to services, and to three Sustainable Development Goals — SDG 3 on health, SDG 10 on reduced inequalities and SDG 17 on partnerships.
For communities in Mutasa, where distance remains a barrier to care, the value of the outreach was measured in reduced travel time and closer access to a health professional, facilitated by a telecoms-backed community model.
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