By Linda M. Kagire
The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi
had devastating effects on the country's health sector, which was
already limping and grappling with poor infrastructure, few hospitals,
limited equipment and medical supplies to deal with the pressing health
emergencies at the time.
Healthcare is one
of the areas the new government led by the Rwanda Patriotic Front
(RPF-Inkotanyi), which had taken over from the genocidal government, had
to start from scratch to rebuild, given the immediate health crisis the
country faced in the aftermath of the genocide.
Understandably, the
healthcare system, which was already weak, was overwhelmed by the
demand of care services, with the few remaining hospitals not just
ill-equipped, but there were no medical personnel, including doctors and
nurses, to treat the wounded, the survivors and the returnees.
The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi had devastating effects on the country's health sector, which was already limping and grappling with poor infrastructure, few hospitals, limited equipment and medical supplies to deal with the pressing health emergencies at the time.
Healthcare is one of the areas the new government led by the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF-Inkotanyi), which had taken over from the genocidal government, had to start from scratch to rebuild, given the immediate health crisis the country faced in the aftermath of the genocide.
Understandably, the healthcare system, which was already weak, was overwhelmed by the demand of care services, with the few remaining hospitals not just ill-equipped, but there were no medical personnel, including doctors and nurses, to treat the wounded, the survivors and the returnees.
Many of the few healthcare workers had been killed, while many others fled the country. There were thousands of people dealing with fresh trauma, including women who had been raped during the genocide.
Mariane Muhawenimana, 48, who survived the genocide in Nyange area, in the current Ngororero District, says they had to walk for several miles to seek treatment in Kabgayi, Muhanga District, before 1994 and the aftermath.
"Getting treatment at the time was a huge struggle. We had to move with machete cuts infected with gangrene for 30km, to get dressings and disinfectant," she says.
Most healthcare programmes such as emergency services, preventative care, vaccinations, prenatal and postnatal as well as mental and psychological care services
such as counselling, were non-existent. To complicate things further, at the time, the country was also grappling with the HIV/AIDS scourge,which was sweeping across the region and continent - with no treatment, vaccines or antiretroviral drugs then. It was a double dilemma.
The past 30 years, however, have seen Rwanda's healthcare system transform tremendously, undergoing a shift which researchers at Harvard University have described as "among the most dramatic the world has seen in the last 50 years."
According to available data, in 1994, only 2.6 per cent of Rwandans had health insurance, but currently, 97.3 per cent of the population has health insurance coverage, with more than 91 per cent covered by 'Mutuelle de Sante' - a robust universal healthcare system that the current
government championed.