Although CCHIPs works at the community/health center level in Rwanda, which is the gateway to all medical care, the opportunity for WWHPS-CCHIPs to network and to learn about how the hospital facilities were designed, built and organized to efficiently and effectively provide healthcare services was very important. In the upcoming weeks, members of the CCHIPs Project team will meet with PIH staff members to discuss PIH/Butaro Hospital initiatives such as their (1) medical equipment procurement procedures, (2) clinical mental health program; and (3) Community Health Worker associations’ microfinance trainings/activities that may represent opportunities for WWHPS-CCHIPs to partner and to enhance its model.

The Butaro Hospital represents a huge milestone for healthcare in Rwanda. The hospital makes high-quality healthcare available to 400,000 Rwandans in the Burera District and relieves pressure on the Ruhengeri District Hospital, which was providing medical care coverage for Burera. The CCHIPs Project is furthering the MoH goal of improving healthcare facilities and services at the health center level. This, in turn, will also reduce the rate of referrals to the Ruhengeri District Hospital.

Healthcare partners working in concert are changing the healthcare aid paradigm and empowering and focusing Rwandans on self-sustainability. WWHPS-CCHIPs is proud to be a part of creating this change.

President Paul Kagame and Richard Sezebera, Minister of Health, inaugurate Butaro Hospital.

Paul Farmer, of PIH, was a driving force behind the creation of the district hospital model. WWHPS-CCHIPs agrees with his philosophy that poor people of the world are entitled to quality healthcare.

Read more about the hospital dedication here. 

Ro Wyman, Founder & CEO, recognized Zack’s contribution to the remarkable and rapid development and growth of the sustainable and replicable CCHIPs Model for the healthcare delivery system for rural health centers in Rwanda.

“Zack has been a driving force in our strategy development for the CCHIPs project,” Wyman said when announcing the Board’s decision at a party hosted for CCHIPs stakeholders in Rwanda in December.

Scott is joining Oliver Wyman Financial Services this January, 2011. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 2008 with a degree in Finance and Economic Development. ­

An article in The New Times mentions how the Rwanda Ministry of Health rewarded mothers at Shingiro Health Center for utilizing pre-natal care services. CCHIPs has been working at Shingiro Health Center since 2008. In that time, we have seen the number of women coming in for their recommended 4 pre-natal care visits increase more than 10 times faster than it has increased at other health centers in the District. Coverage, however, still remains low at 11% -- there is still room for improvement.

KIGALI - The Ministry of Health, under the mother and child health programme, has given child care kits to over 450 mothers attached to Bisate and Shingiro health centers in Musanze district.

The kit, comprising African traditional fabric- Igitenge - a baby sheet and Chlorine for purifying drinking water was given to the mothers for maintaining basic health standards aimed at reducing infant and maternal mortality.

Under the programme, mothers are rewarded for; visiting health centers for pre-natal care in the first quarter of pregnancy, delivering at the health centers and going for check-ups along with new born babies ten days after giving birth.

While handing over the kit to the mothers, the district community health supervisor, JMV Hafashimana, urged expectant mothers to collaborate with the community health workers and avoid home deliveries.

According to available statistics only 66% of women in Musanze deliver from health centers and 32% seek family planning services.

Dr John Karach, the Director of Ruhenegri hospital, said that the programme of rewarding mothers will motivate women to seek health services, which will reduce the mother and child mortality rates.

“Home deliveries have been a major source of infant mortality, so, when women realize that the general community is against the habit, there will be change” Karach said.

See the original here. 

Here's an excerpt:

Critics argued for a shift away from killing polio to free up money for controlling multiple diseases. In some countries, polio campaigns became an example of a functioning vaccination system even as other diseases were missed. Mr. Gates saw that himself in Nigeria.

Arriving at a Sokoto health clinic in a Toyota minivan stocked with Diet Coke, Mr. Gates stepped inside and was soon leaning on a wooden desk, flipping through children's vaccine records. "Do you know if this child had the first dose of DPT?" he asked, pointing to a record of a diphtheria vaccination of a boy who appeared to have missed a treatment. A health worker beside him didn't have an answer.

The clinic also had no hepatitis B and yellow fever vaccines, the workers said, because the government's system for supplying medicine wasn't working.

By contrast, in front of the clinic, a polio campaign was in full swing. Health workers tended coolers filled with vials of vaccine for children gathered there.

At a meeting the next day in the capital, Abuja, Nigeria's head of primary health care, Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, reopened the vertical-vs.-horizontal debate. Even if Nigeria lowers polio cases, he said, the gains "can't hold" without a broader health-care system, he said.

GICUMBI, 1 December 2010 (IRIN) - In a region with some of the world’s worst indicators for maternal and child mortality, Rwanda is working hard to ensure mothers and their children have access to life-saving medical interventions. 

“I applaud the government of Rwanda for its efforts to ensure that you and your children have the same vaccines as children in developed countries,” Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and chair of the GAVI Alliance board, said at the launch of the fifth national mother and child health week in the northern district of Gicumbi on 29 November.

The government aims to vaccinate more than five million children and reach more than 300,000 mothers with tetanus vaccines and vitamin A. It also intends to de-worm all children between the ages of one and 16.

The country has recorded major successes in its maternal and child health programme, lowering its under-five mortality from 152 per 1,000 live births in 2005 to 103 in 2008, and its under-one mortality rate from 86 per 1,000 live births in 2005 to 62 in 2008. Maternal mortality has fallen from 750 per 100,000 live births in 2005 to 383 in 2009.

By comparison, neighbouring Uganda has an under-five mortality of 130 per 1,000 live births and a maternal mortality rate of 440 per 100,000, while Kenya’s under-five mortality stands at 130 per 1,000 live births and its maternal mortality at 560 per 100,000 live births.

Read the rest of the article here. 

Despite the large doses of health aid that humanitarian organizations have poured into Africa, many Africans are still living with — and dying of — a lack of basic healthcare. Why? Primarily because most aid is niche aid.

It is certainly critical to vaccinate against deadly diseases like tuberculosis, polio, and measles; distribute bed nets to combat malaria; and administer lifesaving antiretrovirals to people with HIV. However, by focusing funding on "big diseases," well-meaning health organizations have failed to close critical healthcare gaps — which is costing lives.

In northern Rwanda, where we work, diseases like HIV and tuberculosis account for only 10% of the health problems. It's basic health issues such as diarrhea, pneumonia, and malnutrition that are the major killers, especially of children.

The tragedy is that we can prevent these deaths with low-tech, cost-effective measures. In the sub-Saharan region, pneumonia and diarrhea kill nearly two million children under five each year — pneumonia alone kills more than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined — yet less than 20% of children with pneumonia receive the antibiotics that could cure them. And most maternal deaths are preventable with access to reproductive health services, equipment, supplies, and skilled healthcare workers.

Read the rest of the article here.

Consultants face two hurdles in retirement: working too little or working too much. “Going from deep involvement and a lot of activity to relaxing and playing golf is really not a good idea, mentally or physically,” says Oliver Wyman co-founder Bill Wyman, who retired from his firm in 1995. “I think you need to remain involved and maintain a drive to achieve in order to continue to thrive. ... The challenge is how to do the right amount of that.”

Wyman’s quest for retirement-life balance involves serving as a counselor to CEOs, a director on several corporate and nonprofit boards and 
leading Wyman Worldwide Health Partners, which has greatly improved the quality of primary care tens of thousands of Rwandans receive in rural parts of the East African country. 

Wyman’s retirement began with the same sort of introspection that first propelled him into consulting following Colgate, naval service and Harvard Business School. Acting on a recommendation by a career-management author, Wyman filled 40 notebook pages with memories of activities that he liked and disliked throughout his young life. A clear pattern emerged. “I noted what I liked and compared these interests with jobs that were available,” he recalls. “Consulting pretty much fell out as the clear winner.”

Read the rest of the article.