First Lady, Russian Deputy PM in talks on health, education

FIRST LADY Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa and Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Honourable Tatiana Golikova this week had a heart-to-heart discussion as women on a number of issues of mutual interest, including health and education.

The Deputy Prime Minister is the one who invited the First Lady to her current visit to Moscow during which she has been honoured with a doctorate degree and given an award for her charity work which has transformed the lives of many people in Zimbabwe.

The First Lady was accompanied by Mr Muponisi Dzapasi, the chargé d’affaires at the embassy in Moscow, Ms Thatshelwa Sibanda, a principal officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and Ms Memory Mbendera, an administration officer in the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Art and Recreation.

The Deputy Prime Minister expressed gratitude to Dr Mnangagwa for honouring her invitation to visit Moscow.

“We welcome you to Moscow and thank you for accepting my invitation. I hope your stay in Russia will be pleasant and interesting. I would like to say a few words about the areas of cooperation where we already have quite a good activities and prospects for the future. The first area is healthcare and I am glad you met with our minister of health.

“We had a previous agreement which lasted from 1997 to 2020 on healthcare cooperation which has since been halted and expired.

“It was covering issues of cooperation in medical education and scientific cooperation to fight infectious and non-infectious diseases including heart diseases and cancers, but we have already prepared a new version of the

agreement to extend it further and we have transferred it to the Zimbabwean side.

“If Zimbabwe gives a positive answer to this agreement, it could be

signed during the Russia-Africa Summit in 2023 to be held in St Petersburg,” she said.

The Deputy Prime Minister spoke about Zimbabwean students who were

studying in her country in various specialties.

“At least 146 students from Zimbabwe are studying in Russia on medical education and 35 of them are getting State’s scholarships from Russia. In the year 2021 to 2022, 15 more students were admitted and we intend to continue such cooperation. In 2022, Russia continued its programme of offering scholarships to foreign students on paediatrics, obstetrics, cardiology and other specialties.”