KHC Maternity Ward
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 6:06AM Date: October 5, 2010
Name: IRAGUHA GASORE Jean René
Position: OPERATIONS Coordinator
Project Update:
Healthcare infrastructure is one of the biggest needs in the health care system of Rwanda. In the last few years, the government of Rwanda has worked on improving and setting standards of healthcare infrastructure, including facilities, equipment furniture, etc. Unfortunately, most of the rural health care facilities still need outside funding to reach standards.
As one of the 5 elements of CCHIPs, the Infrastructure Element aims to renovate existing healthcare facilities up to MoH standards and train the HC staff in the maintenance of its infrastructure, in the most cost-effective and sustainable way. CCHIPs uses outside contractors to conduct construction projects, but closely supervises their work.
Since February 2008, we’ve been working on upgrading the infrastructure of Shingiro Health Center; with no running water, asbestos in the ceiling, old walls and not enough space for the proper delivery of health care, we totally renovated the entire existing infrastructure. We started with running water and electricity, removing asbestos ceilings, repainting each room, tiling the wards, modifying rooms into wards, extending rooms to fit the MoH standards, adding needed buildings, and providing necessary equipment and furniture.
At Kabere Health Center, the infrastructure needs is not as high as it was at Shingiro. With strong buildings and enough rooms, the only needs are smaller renovations and extension of the maternity unit which was really small. We have already renovated two wards (women’s and children’s), and are now extending the maternity area. To extend the maternity area, we are modifying the existing waiting room and combining it with the delivery room to make one waiting room which reaches MoH standards. We are also building a bigger room in the back which will be the delivery room.
As the pictures below show, we are well on our way towards completing the new delivery room!
KHC floor plan before maternity renovation.
KHC floor plan after maternity renovation.
Current progress on KHC maternity ward!
Rene in Infrastructure Element