A Little About Rwanda

Rwanda is a beautiful country nestled in East Africa. It is land-locked and very small - only about the size of Delaware. It is so small it is usually not labeled on full maps of the continent but lies between DRC, Tanzania, Burundi, and Uganda. The terrain is mostly high elevation hills and rain forest, though apparently there is some desert area off to the east. So far, I have found the country to be fascinating from a policy perspective. The national government is relatively authoritarian, meaning that decisions are made from the top down. However, nearly everyone in Rwanda seems to agree that this is what is needed at least right now as the people of Rwanda attempt to move forward together after the genocide and subsequent conflicts.

The Government of Rwanda (GOR for short, which took me well into Monday afternoon to figure out) has done extraordinary things in the health and human services area. In just a few years, they have instituted a single payer community-based health system that covers more than 83% of the citizens, and have a vast network of more than 400 health care facilities. Their goal is to make quality primary care available to any Rwandan within a 1-hour walk. They are only about 50% of the way to their goal but I find it laudable. On the down side, a significant percentage of their health care facilities have no electricity and many are not staffed at appropriate levels. If there are any green energy entrepreneurs out there, this would be a great place for solar since it is sunny every day (even in the rainy season).

There are a lot of orphaned children and women-headed households due to the genocide. The government has made human rights, especially for the vulnerable members of society, a key strategy moving forward. It believes that through education and improved health, the country will continue to grow economically into a middle-income country that is not reliant on foreign aid to survive (currently more than 50% of the government’s health budget is from outside sources).

The City of Kigali is very clean and the people are helpful and friendly. Last year, I believe, the central government changed the official language to English from French, so many people are learning English and want to talk with you in that language. French seems to be the language Rwandans are most comfortable with, though; a fact I found out when I attended an external meeting today and the majority was in French. I picked up about half of the verbal discussion and 2/3 of the written materials. Better than I thought I’d do. On my walk home from work this evening, I greeted a father and his two young boys with “bon soir” and they replied back that they spoke English and stopped and spoke with me for a few minutes. The boys were very happy.

So, all in all, this is a wonderful place filled with hope, challenge, and very hard-working people.