Ophelia Dahl reports from PIH-supported hospital in Rwinkwavu, Rwanda
Posted on Jun 24, 2011
On June 24, Ophelia Dahl, PIH’s Executive Director, sent this short update about the progress that has been made outfitting the PIH-supported Rwinkwavu Hospital, located in southern Rwanda, this past year and the clear impact those improvements have made for the local community.
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The new maternity ward at Rwinkwavu Hospital is nearly finished. |
To round the corner of the red dirt road that leads to Rwinkwavu Hospital, to pass the giant dilapidated brick warehouses and see the front of the sturdy district hospital is to feel greeted by an old friend.
Each time I visit Rwanda I am witness to further magnificent transformation: new clinics constructed, gardens planted, warehouses jam-packed with supplies and medicine and support groups for vulnerable young women. To a regular but infrequent visitor like me, these changes can seem almost magical -- disguising the huge amount of work required to plan, design and build facilities and programs from scratch with our partner, the Government of Rwanda.
Perhaps the best sight of all was the nearly finished maternity clinic adjacent to the main hospital -- an entirely new, spacious and gleaming building solely for women's health. Sixty beds in total for labor and delivery, a lying-in ward, post operative ward, two ORs, one always available for emergency C-sections, and a blood bank.
In short, a full complement of services for pregnant women.
As I write, ground is being broken on a neonatology unit, the first in Rwanda. What could be better than this? How about learning that PIH has only paid for 25 percent of the construction costs of the maternity unit. The other costs have been assumed by the Government of Rwanda, UNICEF and The Global Fund.
Partnership does not feel any more rewarding than this -- except perhaps when this transformed piece of land is teeming with women seeking care.
Huge amounts of work have been completed in the last 12 months and all credit goes to the efforts of the teams in Rwanda, their counterparts in Boston and all of you who support our work.
PIH and its sister organization Inshuti Mu Buzima (IMB) have been working in Rwanda since 2005. In partnership with the Government of Rwanda and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), our work supports the Ministry of Health to comprehensively strengthen the public health system in rural, underserved areas of the country.
