CCHIPs Project Staff:
Jeanne d'Arc Nyirajyambere
Interim Project Director and Medical Programs Coordinator;)
Jeanne d'Arc leading a training session during Mother-Child Health week
Jeanne d’Arc was born in Gisenyi in the Western Province of Rwanda. She is currently an A1 nurse and is studying to obtain an advanced degree in public health in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She has over 20 years of experience working alongside health-related NGOs, including Save the Children, Doctors without Borders, and UNICEF.
She began working as the Medical Programs Coordinator for CCHIPs in February 2008. She is married and currently lives in the Musanze district with her six children (Two of her own, four family related).
Email: jyambereba@yahoo.com
Zack Scott
Management Systems Coordinator;)
Zack is the newest edition to the CCHIPs team. He has been working with WWHPS since January 2009 to help procure medical supplies, research the development of medical protocols and develop the WWHPS and CCHIPs website.
Once in Rwanda, he will be in charge of partnering with another NGO to create and implement a management system for the Shingiro healthcentre that can be incorporated into the CCHIPs model.
Zack is a recent graduate of Dartmouth College where he majored in Economics. He has experience working as a Financial Analyst in the Investment Banking Division of Citigroup, as an Investment Analyst for Hay Creek Hospitality, and as a Financial Assistant at Italian Wine Merchants.
Email: zachary.t.scott@gmail.com
Jean-Rene Iraguha Gasore
Operations Coordinator;)
Rene on his way to Shingiro
Jean-René was born in Butare, in the Southern Province of Rwanda. He recently graduated from the Kigali Health Institute with an Advanced Degree in Environmental Health Sciences.
René has served as a Supervisor for the National Program for Malaria Control in Indoor Residual Spraying in the Gasabo District, and as a data collector for the strategic plan for Biomedical Waste Management.
He has been working as the CCHIPs Operations Coordinator since early 2008.
Elie Sebigoli
Projects Coordinator
;)
Elie leading a nutritional discussion at Shingiro
Elie Sebigoli has been working as the CCHIPS Programs Coordinator since September 2006. After graduating from high school, he became a teacher at the Bisate Primary School where he met his future wife Angel. In 1986, he began working for the Mountain Gorilla Project as an environmental education officer. After pursuing conservation studies abroad, Elie returned to Rwanda in 1993 and was hired by the Rwandan Office of Tourism and Park Conservation (ORTPN) as an assistant chief warden of community conservation in the Virunga National Park.
During the genocide, he fled with his wife and two children to the Congo where he worked for CARE Deutschland as a translator in a hospital. He returned to Rwanda in 1996 and took a job with Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund-Europe (now called Gorilla Organization) as a program manager. In 1999, he went back to work for ORTPN as assistant chief warden in charge of park protection at Akagera National Park and subsequently for the Akagera Game Lodge as a head ranger.
Elie is currently pursuing a degree in rural development and travels to Goma, DRC on the weekends to attend university. He has just completed a house for his family outside of Ruhengeri. He and his wife Angel have been married 23 years and have five children.
Email: sebigoli@ yahoo.fr
CCHIPs Project House Staff:
Gabby Tuyisenge
Cook and Project House Manager
Gabby is the CCHIPS cook and house manager. He grew up in Bugesera in the south of Rwanda. After leaving school at 14, Gabby moved to Kigali to begin working as an electrician’s assistant and then as house help until he had saved enough money to buy a bicycle which he could rent out for 90 cents/day. In 2004, Gabby took a job as a cook with Rwandans & Americans in Partnership (RAP). The house that he worked in hosted American exchange students and Gabby quickly learned English.
CCHIPS was fortunate that Gabby agreed to move north to Ruhengeri and cook wonderful meals for all the hard working CCHIPS volunteers. He is quick to learn new recipes and makes the best pizza in Rwanda.
Gabby has started a motorcycle taxi business and hopes to save enough money to build a house and buy a cow and car. His mother and two younger sisters still live in Bugesera and Gabby has just become an Uncle for the first time.
Alice Nyiransengimana
Project Housekeeper
Alice NYIRANSENGIMANA is the CCHIPS housekeeper. Alice grew up in Gitarama, south west of Kigali, the eldest of her 3 brothers and 3 sisters. In her second year of high school the genocide started and her father was killed. After the genocide she tried to go back to school but did not finish. She went to work trading small things like sugar, cooking oil and house supplies. She worked for a short time as a supervisor at a coffee and vegetable plantation so that she could send her younger siblings to school. In 2004, Alice married a man working in Ruhengeri and moved north. She had two children, Kevin 4 and Cedric 1. Her husband then abandoned the family and two of her sisters moved in with her.
In 2007, Alice started a small restaurant business called the Sun Café which helps to supplement her income. She sells fanta, milk, boiled eggs and the biggest, best muffins in Rwanda.
She hopes to be able to have enough money to have a stable life and send her children to school. She dreams of having a house and a cow and of finishing her last year of high school so she can be a graduate. Next year the District is planning to start night school for people like her and she is hoping to be able to participate
John Mazimpaka
Project House Guard
John Mazimpaka grew up in Changugu in the southeast of Rwanda, the eldest of five children. With his parents and four sisters, he farmed beans, maize and cassava. John finished school at age 14 and stayed home to help his father farm. His parents passed away in 1976 and he had to stay home and take care of his sisters until they were all married. He then moved to Kigali a month before the start of the Genocide. After the war, he moved in with his paternal uncle in Kigali and worked odd jobs.
In the future, John hopes to live in his house in Changugu and keep goats, pigs, sheep and hens and become a small trader of spirits, soaps, pens and other things.
Volunteers:
We have been fortunate to have had a number of talented volunteers through our time in Rwanda who have helped our project tremendously. Here is a brief introduction to some of our more prominent volunteers:
Dr. Kathleen Allden
Dr. Allden worked with our CCHIPs team to assess mental health problems and priority psycosocial issues. She also has evaluated the feasability of establishing a mental health program and helped to train our clinical staff in psychological treatment.
Biogas Team
In the summer of 2007, three engineering students from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College worked with our team to develop and build a mechanically robust, minimal maintenence anaerobic biogas digester for our test clinic at Bisate.
The team included Benjamin Koons, J.J. Johnson, and Andrew Johnston.
Ann Symonds
;)
Ann, now a junior at Cornell University, helped us set up our nutritional program at Shingiro.
Among the initiatives were identifing children at risk, developing a nutritional garden, providing nutritional education for families with children at-risk for malnutrition, and providing basic nutritional education and training to health centre staff and community workers .
Her extensive work can be seen in her Nutritional Report.
Dr. Mary Horder
Dr. Horder has worked with us beginning in October of 2006. In her three trips to Rwanda, she has helped train our nursing staff on proper patient consultations and in-patient rounds, as well as helped to train local animators in better medical practices.
Nancy Ehrig
Nancy Ehrig is a retired nurse-midwife who volunteered with our project at Shingiro Health Center. Nancy last spent 3.5 months on site at Shingiro, teaching staff Women's Health and Primary Care. She feels the need is great and wants to do her part to assist Rwanda in improving health care for families. Nancy has had a full professional life which includes working in Saudi Arabia, South Korea, starting three midwifery services in the Boston area, and completing a 26 year Army Nurse Corps career.