PIH helps bring quality care to the only district in Rwanda without a hospital

	The inauguration was attended by the local mayor, officials from the local police and military, PIH co-founder Paul Farmer, and members of the community and new hospital staff.

For years, the 360,000 residents of the Rwandan district of Burera relied on a single doctor and a hospital that existed only in name. But no longer. On March 20, a beautiful new 24-bed ward officially opened its doors to the people of the impoverished community, complete with a staff of 43 skilled health professionals, including five doctors, plus a team of over 50 trained community health workers. The inauguration of the new ward also marked a major milestone for the effort by the Rwandan government, PIH and the Clinton Foundation to bring quality health care coupled with initiatives to alleviate extreme poverty to every corner of rural Rwanda. 

“The new ward that is now hosting patients was an abandoned building where goats were hanging out,” writes Charles-Patrick Almazor, a Haitian physician who brings experience acquired working with Zanmi Lasante to his new job as the head of PIH operations in Burera. Goats notwithstanding, the new facility provides a welcome relief for the community, as patients used to walk for miles to seek care in a neighboring district or even across the border in Uganda. Several have died while attempting to cross the lake separating Burera from the closest district hospital.

Built through a strong partnership that united the government, the Clinton Foundation and Partners In Health, the new ward complies with modern hospital standards. It features an infection control system that includes good ventilation with huge windows, sinks in the ward where health providers can wash their hands, modern toilets and showers available for the patients. And of course, adds Dr. Almazor, it has other essentials that were previously lacking, like electricity.

The new ward before (above) and after (below) renovation

Although it represents a vast improvement, the new ward is only a first step. Over the next few months, the partners plan to open a new operating room equipped to perform Caesarean sections and to deploy a fleet of ambulances. And plans have already been set in motion to construct a new main hospital with over 100 beds, to be completed by the middle of 2009.

With this new base of operations in Burera, PIH is now working in three districts of the country: Kayonza and Kirehe in the east and Burera in the north. These hospitals in turn are part of the partnership’s plans to bring comprehensive community-based care to all 27 districts and nine million residents of rural Rwanda.

“The opening of this ward truly tells how the government is moving toward the vision,” writes Dr. Almazor.

[published April 2008]