My husband, Aidan Chidarikire, who has died aged 92, was appointed director of pharmacy services in Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health in the early 1980s, serving at a crucial time in the development of a healthcare system fit for the newly independent nation.
Under the previous white minority regime, health services had been heavily skewed towards the white population and cities, and against the rural areas where the vast majority of the population lived. The twin pillars of the new strategy, in which Aidan played a leading role, were the establishment of an essential drugs list to meet the health needs of the majority of the population, and country-wide, grassroots-led training workshops, to ensure key medicines were for the first time well managed and accessible.
The eldest of six children of Protassio Chidarikire, a butcher, and his wife, Valeria, Aidan was born in what was then Southern Rhodesia, in rural Chegutu, where it was the norm for boys to herd cattle. A bright pupil, he attended the Goromonzi high school and Kutama Mission, a prestigious Catholic boarding school run by the Marist Brothers, where he learned Christian values which stayed with him for the rest of his life.
On leaving school, he was first a teacher, forming a school choir, and then worked at a chemist’s shop in the capital, Harare (then Salisbury). In 1959, he was selected for a pharmacy scholarship to study in Britain.
After completing his pharmacy studies at Sunderland Technical College (now University), Aidan managed various branches of Boots the Chemist in London, and became a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. He and I were married in 1969, and moved to Zimbabwe with our three children after independence in 1980.
Initially Aidan worked in the Government Medical Stores; when the post of chief pharmacist became vacant, Aidan was appointed to that position. As the health services expanded, the Ministry of Health was restructured and his title was upgraded to the director of pharmacy services.
A key part of his work involved the development of partnerships with the World Health Organization and DANIDA (the Danish International Development Agency) to secure healthcare resources and capacity for the new nation in the aftermath of the war of liberation.
By nature, Aidan was a warm, gentle and principled person, by temperament well suited to the role of health ambassador both at home and overseas, adept at building strong personal and professional relationships that became an essential part of his role. On his retirement in 1999, Aidan was appointed pioneer registrar of the Pharmacists Council of Zimbabwe.
We returned to London in 2015. Aidan enjoyed walking and golf, and with his good ear for music could pick out a tune on the piano.
He is survived by me, our children, Tomorai, Tamisa and Garika, and grandchildren, Tinashe, Tatenda, Tinao, Temai and Zara, and by his siblings, Regina and Thomas.
