Wyman Worldwide Health Partners
WWHPS in Action: CCHIPs in Rwanda
Selected Readings
  • Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa
    Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa
    by Dambisa Moyo

    Recommended by: Ro

This is a call to the living,
To those who refuse to make peace with evil,
With the suffering and the waste of the world.
This is a call to the human, not the perfect,
To those who know their own prejudices
Who have no intention of becoming prisoners of their own limitations.
This is a call to those who remember the dreams of their youth,
who know what it means to share foot and shelter
The care of children and those who are troubled,
To reach beyond barriers of the past bringing people to communion.
            
This is a call to the never ending spirit of the common man,             
His essential decency and integrity,    
His unending capacity to suffer and endure,  
To face death and destruction and to rise again        
And build from the ruins of life.
This is the greatest call of all
The call to a faith in people.

 

From: Algernon D. Black, former senior leader, New York Society for Ethical Culture

Search

 

Congratulations to Ro Wyman and CCHIPs for receiving

ABOUT WWHPS/CCHIPs

Ro and Bill Wyman founded Wyman Worldwide Health Partners (WWHPS) in 2004 and launched the Comprehensive Community Health Initiatives and Programs (CCHIPs) project in 2006 to help Rwanda improve the delivery system for comprehensive primary healthcare in rural areas. The emphasis on the healthcare delivery system came from the observation that the vast majority of health aid to developing countries is vertical, focused on a single disease or particular segment of the population.  While this aid has resulted in tremendous strides in certain areas, it has not helped develop the systems that deliver these health services. Disease-focused aid also does not address common maladies; which affect the health of a larger proportion of the population. In 2009, the top 5 reasons for consultation at Shingiro Health Center were respiratory infection, intestinal parasites, gastritis, physical traumas and joint pains. 

WWHPS is a tax deductable (501 3c) not-for-profit organization in the United States and has INGO certification in Rwanda.

The team in beautiful Giseyni! (Back row, r to l: Jeanne d'Arc, Amber, Consolate, Elie, Zack, Celestin. Front row, r to l: Rene, Jean Bosco, Eli, Marvin, Nathalie)

Our goal is to help improve the primary healthcare delivery system in Rwanda; to develop systems to help the people who suffer from AIDS, TB and malaria, but also the people who suffer from more common health issues. We are doing this by building a comprehensive model for the effective and sustainable delivery of primary health care — a model that the Ministry of Health could replicate for use throughout Rwanda.

In 2006, the Rwandan government invited us to develop our model with Bisate Health Center. We shifted our interventions to Shingiro Health Center in 2008, and expanded to Kabere Health Center in 2010. From 2006 to 2010, CCHIPs functioned as a health program under first the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International and then the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project. In April 2010, WWHPS-CCHIPs became recognized by the Rwandan government as an independent NGO.

These four years have allowed us to show the positive impacts of our work. When we started working with Shingiro in 2008, it was widely acknowledged as the worst health center in Musanze District: it lacked running water, electricity, proper wards, drug supplies, and management systems. It is now recognized as one of the best health centers in the District.

Since 2008, Shingiro has improved faster that over Musanze District health centers in 6 of the 8 MoH metrics that we track: Performance-Based Financing Quality Score, Consultation Coverage, Deliveries Assisted at the Health Center, Family Planning Coverage, HIV Testing Coverage, and 4 Ante-Natal Visits Coverage. It has not improved as quickly in Vaccination Coverage or New Ante-Natal Visits Coverage. Musanze District and the Ministry of Health recognized the success of our model when they invited us to expand to Kabere Health Center in 2010.

CCHIPs is currently working closely with the Ministry of Health to further develop our model and to ensure that it is fully aligned with Ministry of Health policies and protocols. This will allow for the CCHIPs model to have the greatest possible impact in Rwanda.

A few members of the CCHIPs team (Consolate, Nathalie, Zack, Rene, Amber, Jeanne D'Arc, Michael, Elie) with the Shingiro staff at the health center.