Four years ago, there was not a single doctor to serve the 400,000 people in a northern district of Rwanda. It was common that women, or their newborn babies, died in childbirth, as they crossed Lake Burera on boats in efforts to reach the nearest hospital. In 2008, the Government of Rwanda asked Partners in Health (PIH) for help since they had pioneered a new rural health care model in southeastern Rwanda, where they built Rwinkwavu Hospital.
Butaro District Hospital, Rwanda’s Medical Miracle
On January 24, 2011, President Paul Kagame officially opened the state-of-the-art hospital in Butaro, Burera District, Northern Province. The 150-bed hospital was built in just two years in a collaboration between the Rwandan government, Boston-based Partners in Health and the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health, who firmly believes, that the poorest areas in the world can receive world-class care, rather than merely basic primary health, attended the ceremony.
Butaro Hospital Was Built By Rwandans With Local Materials
While projects of this scale in Rwanda often involve major contractors from South Africa or Belgium, the partners behind Butaro hospital elected to built with the labor and fast-developing skills of over 2,500 Rwandans. “Except for one bulldozer we rented to clear the site, this construction was done by hand, using local tools; even machetes some times,” said Dr. Peter Drobac, PIH’s country director in Rwanda. They brought in a master welder, a master carpenter; a master mason, and established workshops at the site. There are now a number of Rwandans skilled in those areas as a result. The use of local materials – including volcanic stone from the Virunga Mountains – and volunteer work helped to cut costs to one-third their normal level for Rwanda.
Butaro Hospital Design Reduces Risk of Infections
Butaro Hospital, a red-roofed group of building on a green hilltop, has been physically designed to prevent patients from being infected by other patients – particularly, with multi-drug-resistant TB. Taking advantage of the region’s temperate climate the facility has no hallways, so patients can not gather in enclosed spaces. Terraced gardens, open courtyards and covered verandas lead to a series of stone-clad wards, labs and specialized treatment centers. Butaro Hospital will serve as the central hub of the Rwandan Ministry of Health’s network of community health centers and village health workers throughout the district.
Partners in Health’s Mission in Rwanda: Community Health Care
Paul Farmer’s NGO Partners in Health came to Rwanda at the invitation of the Rwandan government in 2005. PIH had established an excellent model for rural health care in Haiti hiring hundreds of community health workers to provide for the rural poor at Zanmi Lasante. Inshuti Mu Buzima (“Partners In Health” in the Rwandan national language, Kinyarwanda) was the first PIH project in Africa. PIH used HIV/AIDS prevention and care as the entry point to address the major health problems faced by the local population. PIH’s Haitian physicians and nurses traveled to Rwanda in the early years of the program to provide training. By the end of fiscal year 2011, PIH in Rwanda is on schedule to support 40 health facilities in three districts, with over 1,280 staff members, and work with a network of 6,175 community health workers.
Hope from the Ashes
And, at the center of Butaro Hospital, stands an ancient ficus tree which is considered sacred in Rwandan culture–it marked the place of the king’s court in the ancient times. The tree witnessed Rwanda’s tragic recent history of genocide and was kept as the icon of this area’s new hope. For Dr. Peter Drobac, the 150-bed hospital is an allegory for the rebirth of Rwanda itself. “After we arrived, we actually had to – with the army’s help, of course – scour the hillside and remove unexploded shells and hand grenades that were on the site of the hospital,” he says.
Resources:
Partners in Health, News Archives, Local Hands and Hammers Forge World-Class Facility, January 24, 2011, Web.
Partners in Health, News Archives, Hope from the Ashes, January 27,2011, Web.
Rowan Philp, Rwanda’s Medical Miracle, Times Live (South Africa), January 22, 2011, Web.
