Effective engagement with various religious organizations is one of the ways Zimbabwe could use to promote public health Professor Muhiuddin Haider from the USA has suggested

Professor Haider, who was  on a weeklong tour of the country where he engaged with Health journalists and  provincial medical public relations officers in effective health massaging, told RelZim  that  religion remains an important stakeholder  in the country if it wants to have gains in its  public health programmes.

“Religion is a very important institution in the country and there are many important things we can learn from it. You can use religious and faith based organizations to disseminate health massages, to encourage communities and to empower them adopt new ideas.

“If you use them use them effectively and try to learn how other countries in the region have been effectively using this important institution”, said the Professor who lectures at   the University of Maryland Park school of Public Health (South of Washington DC, United States of America) Friday.

In Zimbabwe government has been failing to get a buy in from members of the Johanne Marange sect who refuse to have their children immunized.

This is the area which professor Heider said needed careful engagement by the government with the concerned sect.