How We Started

In 1988, following a research project on primates in the Awash National Park in Ethiopia, Ro Wyman traveled alone to Rwanda to climb into the volcanic rain forest of the Virunga Mountains to see the mountain gorillas. She began to contribute to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International’s efforts at Karisoke Research Centre. In 1995 and subsequent to the genocide, Ro joined the Dartmouth College Medical School’s Board of Overseers (Hanover, NH). In 2002, Ro joined the Board of Trustees of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (DFGFI), the organization that studies and informs conservationists on protection of the 750 remaining mountain gorillas in East Africa. As she served on both the DFGFI Board and the Dartmouth Medical School’s Board of Overseers and her husband, Bill, served as a Trustee of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, they became passionate about the situation and the people of Rwanda, and committed to helping improve their lives.

They decided to launch a grassroots healthcare project known as Wyman Worldwide Health PartnerS (WWHPS).  Their goal was to create a model for the more effective delivery of primary care. In 2004 and 2005, they organized two annual all-day symposiums in Hanover, NH that brought together individuals and small Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) operating in East Africa to learn what others had found about working in that area, what mistakes had been made and what lessons had been learned. They also sent a young woman to Rwanda for five months to research the current situation and prospective opportunities for launching a beta project and partnerships. Finally, they recruited a young doctor to the team that had just returned from spending a year practicing at King Faisal Hospital in Kigali.

In September 2006,  WWHPS launched the Comprehensive Community Health Initiatives & ProgramS (CCHIPs) project to implement, test and document their healthcare strategy at targeted health centres in Rwanda, a country whose health system was devastated by the 1994 genocide. CCHIPs established a project house for staff and medical volunteers in the town of Ruhengeri in the Northern Province.