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Today,28 January, Solid’ Africa is hosting a great cook off. One that is a great way for Rwandans that would love nothing more than to spend a Saturday afternoon eating brochette and drinking a cold beverage.

It is most importantly and entirely about helping some of the patients in hospitals all over Kigali today. this is an inspiration from the quick and caring insight of a group of young friends that joined forces.

Solid’ Africa is a non profit organization founded in September 2010. The founder members put into action what they saw as a need to spark more human interest in people to help the millions of vulnerable patients in hospitals across Kigali and Africa.

Solid’ Africa was initially born through the spread of joining forces, from a small group of friends, which today leads to a solid non profit organization with over fifty members and growing each day.

Solid’ Africa non profit standing gives them total free reign on how they will implement their projects. Majority of the funding comes from the pockets of the members themselves, the sale of their T-shirts and help from private donors adds as additional funding.

Solid’ Africa is trying to create new and innovative solutions, such as the co-branding of partnerships, which is a first in Rwanda, the very first being the partnership with Boulangerie de Kigali whom will be giving a percentage of their daily production to Solid ‘Africa beneficiaries in hospitals.

The organisation says they will continue to pursue similar partnerships in their effort to encourage the corporate social Responsibility Programs.

It is divided into various activities, from the everyday project to their biggest one which is still in its launching phase, this project’s goal is to be able to feed over one thousand people everyday in four different public hospitals in Kigali, the project called the “Gemura kitchen project” that will cost 50 million Rwandese francs.

Other projects include; ‘Gambora’, ‘Kiza’ and ‘Sukura’ projects which deal in payments of transportation and bills, medical expenses and hygiene respectively.

IGIHE.com spoke to Isabelle kamariza President of Solid’ Africa about todays barbecue.

“The Solid’ Africa team works every day from Monday till Sunday. Our team serves lunch to over 300 patients every Monday at CHUK hospital, we also serve breakfast everyday and deliver soup for patients with special diets everyday”

“Our goal is to raise Frw200,000 by Sunday, which will then be given to the CHUK hospital in Kigali to help pay more of the outstanding health and medical bills, ” she noted.

Kamariza explained, “This barbecue will not only help us reach our goal, it is also to thank our own team members and everyone who has contributed to Solid’ Africa for the amazing work and give them a day they can also enjoy while working”

The barbecue will be held at Kayciru in collaboration with Solid Africa.

One must pay only Frw1500 at the entry and is then free to enjoy the delicious hot food and cold beverages all afternoon, while helping realize a truly great and important cause.

The Minister of Health Dr Agnes Binagwaho has rubbished claims that doctor s intentionally or unintentionally left medical kits inside Zawade Murekatete’s uterus.

The minister said a report has been compiled from the findings of the team of doctors who has carried on the investigation.

“What the media has reported of all those claims of Murekatete that doctors left those kits inside her, It is not true, and we have a prove of that by several examinations done that her uterus was empty,” Binagwaho said declining to avail the compiled findings in the report.

“What is in report has been said by different doctors, there is no need to avail the report, but to who is responsible to put those kits inside her the police is still investigating,” Binagwaho added.

“Investigations indicate that those kits we put inside the patient’s vagina and so it was very near. It was not done by a normal doctor; it could have been done by anyone who can even buy those kits from anywhere,”

Reports have indicated that a syringe is missing and yet it would be used to identify who could have used it or may have picked it from the store or assigned to.

Speaking to Igihe.com, the chairman of Rwanda Medical Council Innocent Gakwaya said that the kits were taken away like any other rubbishes dropped away.

“They were all taken away, but we have shown that there is no responsibility of a doctor whatsoever, I have been a surgeon for 25 years, it is not possible that a trained doctor can do such a thing,” Dr Gakwaya said.

“First of all in an operation a doctor is not one. He/She must be with others helping so I don’t see how a doctor can decide to leave such kits when others looks on. Secondly let say removing a glove, it means one has finished the operation and therefore undressing what he/she was using in the operating theater,” Dr Gakwaya added.

“It is just can’t be possible. May be a cotton or thread for longer time it is possible and it is not only in Rwanda, anywhere in the world these simple mistakes can happen because doctors are also human being but such bigger things and many of such, it is not possible at all,”

So the remaining mystery of who could have been responsible to put those kits inside that patient’s vagina, police will investigate.

When we contacted Police spokesperson Supt. Theos Badege, told Igihe.com that the investigations were still underway.

Genesis
On the morning of April 1, 2008 a Congolese refugee at Gihembe Refugee Camp, went into labour and had to undergo cesarean operation as she was giving birth.

Zawadi Murekatete, 20, was rushed to the camp’s health centre but was immediately transferred to Byumba District Hospital since she had to undergo cesarean which the camp health centre could not perform.

Murekatete said that she underwent operation and gave birth to a healthy baby but doctors instructed her not to move until when she was told to do so.

She said that when she left the theatre, her stomach started swelling immediately, and feeling a lot of pain.

The following day as she went to the toilet, the stitches went loose and her stomach slit open, blood, puss and some liquid started flowing out of her.

She was rushed to the theatre where she was re-stitched but her stomach kept swelling and she had to undergo another operation on April 5, 2008.

She claims that she was discharged but kept seeing puss in her urine. She again consulted the doctors at the camp’s health centre who referred her back to Byumba District Hospital where she had been operated.

Murekatete also claims that an unidentified doctor referred her to a psychiatrist saying that she was suffering from trauma and decided to go back to the camp where she remained under the care of medics of the camp’s health centre.

Murekatete lived with pain for three years until January 5, 2012, when a piece of cotton dropped out of her as she was urinating.

Due to the bad health situation, camp doctors decided to transfer her to Kigali Teaching Hospital (CHUK) without authorization from Byumba District Hospital where the whole of this saga begun to be unearthed.

Murekatete and her mother claim that the three gloves, a syringe and cotton were intentionally left in her uterus by doctors from Byumba hospital.

Current observations have indicated that it is medically impossible for an individual to be inhabited by external agents within the uterus for such a long period of time.

Doctors have said that as far as human anatomy is concerned, it is impossible to habit these materials for that long and besides even if they had been left within the uterus it is unconceivable how they might have travelled to the vagina from where they were disposed off.

They say the canal from the vagina to the uterus (cervix) is such a small slit through which only micro materials can maneuver not such complex material as gloves and syringes.

ENDS

Cardiologists from King Faisal hospital have agreed to operate Ange Ineza a year old girl who has been undergoing heart treatment at Kibuye hospital.

“We have communicated with Ineza’s family, and they will bring her to King Faisal Hospital next week, for a scheduled monthly check up with Dr Mucumbitsi, one of Kigali’s pediatric cardiologists.” Read a communiqué from the ministry of health.

Often, Ineza gets breathing complications after which she has to be hospitalized and kept on oxygen life support for some time.

According to medical diagnosis, she has a hole on the partition wall between the two sides of her heart meaning that blood containing oxygen in the left side of the heart is forced to mix with blood without oxygen in the right side.

With this condition, too much blood passes into the lungs (via the pulmonary artery) and too little to the body tissues (via the aorta).

Indeed, such heart conditions exist in young children; thus, through various initiatives, the Ministry of Health mobilizes as much as possible to offer free heart surgeries by highly qualified international specialists to children suffering from cardiac disorders.

“These initiatives, which have gone on for a long time, are still ongoing and Ineza will benefit from them when she is clinically eligible (and when it is safe to operate on her). In as many of these cases as possible, the Ministry of Health arranges for children to be treated either here in Rwanda or elsewhere, depending on their clinical need,” read the statement.

The Ministry of Health in collaboration with its international partners have already assisted more than 250 patients with cardiac disorders for the past five years.

ENDS

President Paul Kagame, is in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to attend the 18th Ordinary Session of the African Union Summit, scheduled to take place January 29-30, 2012.

The bi-annual meeting is attended African Heads of State and Government as well as heads and representatives of international organizations including the United Nations, that will be represented by Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary General.

President Kagame, will on Monday, January 30, present to the Summit, the report on the 4th High Level Forum on Aid effectiveness that was held last year held in Busan, South Korea.

President Kagame was among the African leaders who represented the continent at the high level meeting held November 29th – 1st December 2011.

On the eve of the AU Summit, President Paul Kagame will take part in the inauguration of the newly constructed African Union Conference Centre (AUCC).

The USD 150 million complexes was China’s donation to the AU in recognition of the friendship between Africa and China.

Part of the Agenda for the AU summit is how to boost intra-African Trade as well as the Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson and Commissioners of the AU Commission.

The current chairperson, Jean Ping who was first elected in 2008, is seeking re-election.

However, he will have to out-compete Madam Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, South Africa’s Minister of Home Affairs and former wife of President Jacob Zuma.

ENDS

People working in Kimironko market and around it have cried foul of public bin that is causing health threat after flooded.

Rubbishes have been dropped in the public bin for long time and it is full and flooded causing improper hygiene.

The place has been filled with a terrible smell and flies scattered around from the big public rubbish bin that collects all rubbish from the market and neighboring areas.

Felix Nzamwita, a butcher in the market, said they have reported the issue to the authority including one in charge of hygiene in the sector.

He said, “We try to use insecticide every time before closing our work in the evening that is why you find our butchery sane; otherwise the authority should take serious measures for sure.”

He added that once a client comes for the first time, he or she considers them as filthy.

Florence Uwimana, a servant in one of the restaurants neighbouring the market named IGISUBIZO, said that they have been accustomed to the situation for they are used to buying insecticide for flies and other insects.

She says, “at least they should cover that rubbish bin……, we are familiar with that smell and we always buy insecticide to kill all the wondering insects which may harm people’s lives.”

Mbonyinshuti said, “we faced the problem of the good placement of the rubbish bin and there was no entrepreneur; for that reason we charged it to the head of the market to deal with it. They tried to solve it in a good way but the interruption was that the rubbish bin got out of use.

He added that the district authority promised them to help in fully solving the problem.

With regard to the problem of the weekends where the rubbish is not removed, MBONYINSHUTI agreed that it was really a serious problem but it was recently solved in collaboration with the Head of the market.

This occurs after various people in different places have been recently complaining on the delay in removing the rubbish in collection bins.

ENDS

The RDF Reserve forces has finalized and handed over to the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) a terrace project of one hundred hectares in Nyabihu District.

According to the RDF press statement, the project that aimed at protecting soil and increasing harvest is evaluated at Rwf 130 million.

It was executed within a period of one month and half by a total manpower of two thousand people.

Maj Gen Jerome Ngendahimana, Deputy Chief of Reserve Forces, said that the project was in line with Government’s plan to eradicate poverty among the population.

He added that the Rwanda Defense Forces get involved in such programs in order to fight poverty, the major cause of insecurity to the population.

Terraces built in hilly areas are one of the numerous ways that the Ministry of Agriculture has devised to increase agricultural production.

Their other programmes that have been introduced like irrigation to see Rwanda cub the problem of food security.

ENDS

After decorated as a hero in Uganda, The President of the republic of Rwanda Paul Kagame and the first lady are slated to continue a three-day State visit to Uganda.

It is slated that they will visit a pharmaceutical manufacturing site, meet with the Rwandan community in Uganda and participate in departure ceremonies at State House which will mark the end of the visit.

President Kagame and his Equatorial Guinea counterpart was yesterday bestowed with heroes’ medals as the NRM party celebrated 26 years in power.

In a colorful function held at Sebei College, Tegres in Kapchorwa District in Eastern Uganda, Kagame and Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo were both given the Excellent Order of the Pearl of Africa Grand Master medals.

Kagame was also honoured the Luwero Triangle Medal and the Kagera Medal for his role in the liberation war that brought the NRM/A into power in 1986 and also for his support of the East African regional integration respectively.

President Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea also the current chairperson of the African Union, was honoured for being a role model and that1979, he has been exemplary in determining growth, stability and maintained a democratic government.

Over 90 other people were also honoured with medals including civilian and military.

The citation read by General Elly Tumwine described President Kagame as distinguished Statesman, Freedom Fighter and dedicated Son of Africa who has dedicated his life to the liberation of oppressed people everywhere.

The Citation also outlined his achievements as a liberator, military commander, political leader and statesman.

“We were availed the opportunity to participate in the liberation of Uganda, and what we gave can never be equal to what we gained from this country,” Kagame said

President Kagame pointed out that the recognition were testimony to the enduring links, forged by a shared history and common struggle, between Rwandans and Ugandans, as well as other Africans on the continent.

“Rwandans and Ugandans may live in two countries, but, in fact, their lives have always been closely intertwined. And these strong ties are demonstrated by how the people of Uganda, led by you, Mr President, stood by us when the time came for our own struggle.” He said.

President Kagame said that the successful liberation struggles were proof that more could be achieved in the current struggle for socio-economic transformation

“We have it within our means to establish peace, and democratic and good governance for much better lives of our people. If we were ever to fail, we would only have ourselves to blame, for these public goods will never come from outside.” Kagame added.

President Kagame noted President Museveni’s advocacy for regional integration, larger markets, greater intra-African trade and adding value to Africa’s natural resources and noted that solidarity was an important factor in achieving common goals.

“We share this commitment to a process that will give us a bigger and more relevant voice in global affairs. We also share the vision of our continent that should use its enormous assets to improve the living standards of our people.”

President Kagame hoped that significance of medals awarded at the ceremony would inspire young Africans to participate in lifting their communities;

“Let the medals that have been awarded, badges of courage and honour that they are, spur a new generation to work together even more for the wellbeing and dignity that our people deserve.”

The decoration of President Kagame as a hero in Uganda, recognizing his role in the liberation struggle is another sign of amended diplomatic relationship that had soared in previous years.

It follows a recent visit of Kagame’s family visiting his counterpart’s family in their upcountry home Rwakitura, Mbarara District(Western Uganda) in the past Christmas festive season.

ENDS

The Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (IRST) has launched an improvised peat which is expected to replace the use of charcoal due to its advantages.

Vincent Gasamagera the head of research noted that the peat will relieve majority who are using coal since its affordable, smokeless and burns longer.

The head of energy at IRST Elizabeth Uwiragiye explained through a power point presentation the uniqueness of the peat.

“Two pieces of peat can cook a kilogram of beans for close to two hours but with usual charcoal the same amount of cooking time will consume more than a kilogram of charcoal,” she illustrated.

However, the research institution lacks the capacity to produce more peat for sale but they intend to work with members of the private sector to multiply the latest cooking fuel.

If launched in the market IRST proposes 50 kilogram to be sold at Frw 3,000.

While addressing the Ugandan audience at Kapchorwa District in Eastern Uganda, President Paul Kagame has called for adding value to natural resources so as to lift the lives of citizens.

Kagame who spoke briefly before his counterpart Museveni addressed the invited guests at the NRM 26th anniversary, said that after the both countries’ struggle for freedom the remaining challenge was make both societies improve lives.

“The challenge is to make our society better, so the need to join efforts. We need to add value to our natural resources so as to improve the lives of our people,” Kagame said in his speech.

At exactly 1:30 pm starts addressing Uganda, after being decorated for the three prestigious medal on 26th NRM anniversary appreciating to be recognized for having contributed for the freedom of Uganda.

“What we gave cannot be equal to what we gained from this country,” Kagame added.

Kagame however dedicated the medals to the people of Rwanda and Uganda whom he said they deserve the medal for also contributing to the both Uganda and Rwanda’s liberation struggle for freedom with what he termed as an ultimate price.

He also thanked President Museveni saying he stood with them when the struggle to liberate Rwanda begun.

“We have now brought back Peace, building democracy and good governance for good lives of Rwandans, if we failed we had ourselves to blame,” Kagame added.

While his counterpart president Museveni disputed media reports and critics of his government that NRM had not adhere to its fundamental changes it vowed to make when it came into power 1986.

“The first fundamental change was freedom of speech, there no national in the whole world that has the kind of freedom of speech we have but it is abused yet it needs to be used constructively,” Museveni said highliting a number of other fundamental changes that have been attained during the NRM regime.

“The other change was in economy the GDP in 1886 was Shs 3.4 trillion while today it is Shs 39 trillion, the economy of Uganda is 12 times bigger today compared to that of 1986 when we came to power,” Museveni added.

According to Museveni, the economy of Uganda would have been much more grown but halted by the delay of some developmental projects in pipeline now.

He also said that Uganda was still facing huge problem of corruption in form of embezzlement of public funds, bribing officials to process document, and nepotism.

President Kagame have been honoured with three medals, the most prestigious medals the most excellent order of Pearl of Africa the Grandmaster Medal, Kagera Medal and Luwero Triangle.

The most excellent order of the Pearl of Africa is mostly given to the heads of states and the equivalent while the other two are also awarded to military officials who participated in NRM/A’s five year bush war that brought President Museveni into power.

President Paul Kagame is among 27 original individuals along President Museveni who launched a five year bush war in 1981 that ended former Ugandan president Milton Obote’s regime hence NRM assuming power January 26th 1986.

ENDS