Mutoko

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Mutoko , also Mtoko, is a 1,300 m high place with about 5,000 inhabitants and a district with 125,000 inhabitants (2006) in the province of Mashonaland East in Zimbabwe .

Around 1928, the tropical medicine specialist Hans Pattis (1897–1933) from Bolzano founded a leprosy station in Mtoko. More recently, a village for almost 200 orphans has been built there by various aid organizations. The AIDS rate among pregnant women is 25%, making it the highest in the country. The well-frequented and well-developed highway from Harare to Blantyre , which runs through the town and is regularly flooded by the Mvinzi River in the rainy season, takes its toll. Since the Nyamapanda border post is not far, its problems extend as far as here.

Mutoko is located in a rural and sparsely populated area. Aquamarine , goschenite (see under: Gemstone ), cassiterite , kyanite and coltan ( tantalum ) are extracted in a mine . In 1990 a tree nursery project pulled and planted 38,000 trees. They are slowly becoming usable. There are considerations about fruit tree cultivation. An ongoing project is extracting vegetable oil from the Jirimono bush ( physic nut ), which is traditionally planted as a hedge in Mutoko. The oil serves as fuel ( biodiesel ) and as the basis for the production of soap and alternative fertilizers.

Mutoko has a 1,100 m long and 18 m wide asphalt runway, which is held as a reserve by the military, and a notorious prison for political prisoners, elementary and secondary school, which was equipped with computers and internet access through a Canadian project, but there is no comprehensive connection to the electricity network.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas Mettenleiter : Personal reports, memories, diaries and letters from German-speaking doctors. Supplements and supplements III (I – Z). In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 22, 2003, pp. 269-305, here: p. 283.

Coordinates: 17 ° 23 ′  S , 32 ° 13 ′  E