Across Zimbabwe, thousands of people living with chronic pain, life-threatening acute conditions, and treatment-resistant illnesses are finding new hope through a decades-long health partnership between China and Zimbabwe, centered on expanding access to both traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and cutting-edge modern medical technologies.
At the Zimbabwe-China Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture Center based at Harare’s Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, the nation’s top public referral institution, the 10-member 23rd Chinese medical team has built a reputation for life-saving care and transformative treatment. Led by Ma Zheng, a public health specialist from China’s Hunan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the team draws on cross-disciplinary expertise from leading Hunan hospitals to treat an average of 30 patients daily, combining TCM practices with modern critical care techniques.
Stories of dramatic recoveries have spread far beyond Harare’s city limits, drawing patients from hundreds of kilometers across all 10 of Zimbabwe’s provinces, many traveling for more than six hours to access care the center provides. One of the team’s most notable achievements involved rescuing an elderly HIV-positive patient who had developed multiple organ failure stemming from acute heart failure and cardiogenic shock. Local clinicians had been unable to secure venous access after the patient’s peripheral veins collapsed from widespread swelling, but coordinated multidisciplinary emergency intervention from the Chinese team stabilized the patient and pulled him back from the brink of death.
In another high-stakes case, the team rapidly treated a patient with an acute ischemic stroke within the critical 4.5-hour window that determines long-term outcomes, preventing permanent disability and adding another success story to the growing list of results that have built public trust in Chinese medical expertise among Zimbabweans.
For patients living with chronic pain that has resisted conventional Zimbabwean healthcare treatments, TCM practices including acupuncture, cupping, moxibustion, massage, and herbal medicine have delivered life-changing relief. Revayi Roselinah Chaitezvi, a Chitungwiza resident who lived with disabling back pain for five years, saw her symptoms subside dramatically after just three acupuncture sessions. For 27-year-old Jomarie Nhari, persistent shoulder pain and muscle strain that failed to respond to expensive conventional physiotherapy also improved dramatically after acupuncture, exceeding all her expectations. Sixty-one-year-old Ivy Gundam, who lives with high blood pressure and chronic knee pain, now says acupuncture has let her regain control of her daily life after years of being limited by discomfort.
Beyond direct patient care, the partnership is driving long-term progress for Zimbabwe’s entire healthcare system. The Chinese team has introduced advanced neuromodulation technologies—including deep brain stimulation and spinal cord stimulation—for the first time in the country, allowing local clinicians to treat Parkinson’s disease, severe neuralgia, and spinal cord injuries that once required patients to travel abroad for costly care. The team also plans to roll out affordable, easy-to-use rapid multiplex detection testing that can screen for HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B in a single test, a tool ideal for grassroots community outreach. Regular training programs for local doctors and nurses are also building local capacity to diagnose and manage infectious diseases, creating sustainable skills that extend beyond the team’s deployment.
The work of the medical team has also inspired a new generation of Zimbabwean healthcare workers to carry TCM practice forward across the country. Charlotte Muziri, a former Miss Zimbabwe Queen and University of Zimbabwe graduate, first connected with the team when her father had a stroke in 2017, and the successful treatment restored hope to her entire family. Today, she volunteers as a trainee at the center and plans to pursue advanced medical studies in China. Munashe Mboneka, one of Zimbabwe’s first locally trained TCM practitioners, completed specialized training in Hunan province in 2022 and now works full-time at the center, where patient demand consistently outstrips available capacity. “The Chinese doctors have become a beacon of hope for Zimbabweans who had exhausted other treatment options,” Mboneka said.
In addition to fixed care at the Harare center, the team regularly hosts mobile outreach camps across remote rural communities, providing free consultations, acupuncture treatment, disease screening, and health education to thousands of people who would otherwise lack access to these services.
This current chapter of collaboration builds on a health partnership that stretches back more than 40 years. China first sent medical teams to Zimbabwe in 1985, and has since supported the construction of major public healthcare facilities including Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital and the Mahusekwa China-Zimbabwe Friendship Hospital. Today, the partnership’s impact is measured not just in infrastructure and technology transfer, but in the thousands of lives saved, chronic pain relieved, and hope restored for Zimbabweans who had nowhere else to turn for care.