Rwanda

PRIME tutors have been involved in primary care, surgical training and development of basic healthcare training for non-medical personnel. PRIME has delivered whole person healthcare training to healthcare professionals and pastors and our tutors have also been involved in HIV/AIDS education and health provision programmes and delivered surgical training at a regional hospital.

There are few specialist surgeons in Rwanda. Operations are frequently performed with a text book open, and there is little or no post-graduate education available to health workers.

A PRIME team provided surgical training in Cyangugu in the largely rural western area of the country which is home to around 20,000 people. A common operation is the repair of a recurring hernia - ‘recurring’ because previous repairs had broken down. Surgical technique, easily put right by the training provided by the PRIME team, will avoid these repeated operations in the future.

The team showed local doctors how to use a gastroscope, given to the hospital many years ago, but never used as no-one had been trained how to use it.