From Magwegwe to Melbourne: A Nurse’s Twenty-Year Journey Home

Sister Patricia Khumalo left Bulawayo in 2003 with a single suitcase and a one-year nursing contract for a private hospital in Melbourne. Twenty-two years later, she returned with three Australian-born children and enough savings to do what she had quietly planned the entire time: open a community clinic in Magwegwe.

The Khumalo Family Clinic opened its doors this month in a refurbished butchery on the main Magwegwe Road. Consultations cost a flat $5. Children under six are free.

“I was a Magwegwe child. The clinic I used as a girl is now a ruin. I knew if I didn’t come back to fix it, no one would,” Sister Patricia said.

Her three children, ages 8, 12 and 15, are now enrolled at Townsend Boys’ and Townsend Girls’ High. “They cried for two weeks. Now they argue about which Highlanders striker is best. They will be fine.”