Our History
Our current partnership with Health Development Initiative Rwanda (HDI) began in July 2007 with a link through a Spokane college student participating in Global Youth Connections and the “Never Again Rwanda” project for youth in Rwanda. As a result of communication with Dr. Joseph Nkurunziza, the director of “Never Again Rwanda” and HDI, UJAMAA traveled to Rwanda with 19 medical professionals and allied personnel in June 2008 on a fact-finding and site mission and to begin a relationship between HDI and UJAMAA.
During the June 2008 trip, we were able to do an initial assessment of the clinical and educational needs of Kibagabaga Hospital. Our team participated in the care of hospital patients, performed surgery, and mentored teaching rounds in the cardiac, obstetric, and neonatal wards. Lectures were carried out for medical students, physicians and nurses, and the team demonstrated a model of continuity of care between caregivers, as well as establishing goals and objectives for individual patients. An all-day seminar with Rwandan mental health professionals proved to be valuable and productive.
The team visited several rural health clinics and participated in spontaneous teaching sessions. The team contributed to:
- Improving community health of the B’twa people through a deworming project
- Evaluating of clean water needs
- Providing health insurance subscriptions for the entire village for two years
- Delivering $65,000 in equipment and supplies to leave in Rwanda
The team returned to Spokane with the commitment to:
- Provide maternal/child health care training and services
- Develop administration skills
- Develop cardiac surgical program for King Faisal Hospital and continued training at Kibagabaga Hospital
- Install a well for the B’twa community and dectected a second water source. This community has begun work on the second site.
In March 2009, seven members of the MATERNAL/CHILD project (Obstetrics and Pediatrics) returned to do hands-on training with over 60 nurses in the rural health clinics, teaching complicated obstetrics and neonatal resuscitation. The same team taught 40 residents and nurses in three hospitals in Kigali. Significant connections were initiated with the Ministry of Health, the medical school, and the first family practice residency program in Rwanda.
In April 2009, a member of the cardiac team returned to Rwanda, in response to an invitation by Dr. Joseph Mucumbitsi of King Faisal Hospital to bring a team of cardiac surgeons to operate on patients with rheumatic and congenital heart disease. The team would be one of a 4-team program to provide prevention, detection, and surgery in Rwanda. This has resulted in the formation of the cardiac project of UJAMA: Healing Hearts Northwest. This team will be one of four international teams operating annually, providing surgical correction of rheumatic heart conditions and congenital heart problems.
In April 2009, UJAMA, with the generous support of Deaconess and Valley Hospitals of Spokane (Community Health Services), was able to host Drs. Dan Lutasingwa and Aflodis Kagaba of HDI on a 3-week visit to Spokane to study our system of health care. They became fully aware of the value of protocols, standards, and quality assurance. This visit confirmed their long-term vision of a mobile clinic to provide public health and community education, diagnostic labs, screening and testing, patient transport, as well as the development of a model health clinic, built from the “ground up” to establish standards, quality, and healthcare protocols.