Linda M. Kagire
Believers International Hospital and Research Centre is in Busanza, Kicukiro |
A collaborative effort between Rwanda and India is set to deliver a state-of-the-art hospital and medical college that will transform Busanza, a once rural locality of Kigali and make Rwanda a medical tourism destination.
Ground works are underway to complete the first phase of
Believers International Hospital and Research Centre, a multi-speciality
medical facility, which is expected to reduce the cost of treatment abroad and
contribute to the country's quest to become a medical hub.
Located next to Believers Eastern Church in Busanza,
Kicukiro District, the first phase, consisting of a 220-bed hospital and a
medical college, is set to be completed in 15 months, with the facility
expected to officially open at the end of 2025, or at most early 2026.
In an interview with The New Times, Rev. Jimmy John Simon,
the Acting Legal Representative, said Believers International Hospital and
Research Centre will not only boost access to healthcare in Rwanda, but will
also attract patients from the region and beyond, especially on the African
continent.
The ”ospital, which mirrors Believers Church Medical College
Hospital in Kerala, India, one of the best hospitals in the Asian
sub-continent, will help reduce the number of patients travelling abroad for
advanced care and also ensure that the services are affordable for Rwandans.
According to Rev. Simon, the hospital was born out of bonds
between the Anglican Church of Rwanda and Believers Eastern Church, an Orthodox
Church of Indian origin with congregations and parishes in 19 countries across
the world.
Believers Eastern Church Rwanda opened in 2021, becoming the
first branch of the development oriented Indian church in Africa.
“We are here for the past three years as a church and we are
also part of our social aspect of trying to help people and the Medical College
Hospital is one of the biggest projects that we are doing," he said.
Choosing Rwanda
Prior to coming to Rwanda, Simon says they had not known
much about the country but in 2018, Ernest Rwamucyo, who was Rwanda’s High
Commissioner to India at the time interested them to come to Rwanda.
Being a ‘typical Indian’ himself, the Orthodox clergyman
says that he had a negative notion of Africa as a difficult place to live or do
business but the initial team they sent to Rwanda to do research came back with
a positive report.
It is at that point that Simon did his own research and read
a lot about the progress Rwanda has made under the leadership of President Paul
Kagame, which made it easy for them to consider Rwanda for the multi-million
investment.
"His Excellency [President Kagame] has done a
tremendous job for the country and I am proud of him for what he's doing and
the role that he's playing," says Simon when asked why they chose Rwanda
out of the many countries.
"Recently I was at one of the Kwibuka events and I
would say it is so tremendous to see the work that he has done for all the
people and to come from such a background to be in a state like this, I would
say Rwanda as one of the best places to be in Africa and I'm glad our church
leadership chose this place for the project,"
Simon says that after they were invited by the former
ambassador and Archbishop Laurent Mbanda of the Anglican Church of Rwanda, they
discussed the need to set up the medical facility to cut down the number of
people traveling to India, Europe or North America to seek treatment.
"We have the expertise of having a 1000- bed hospital
back in India which is known as the Believers Church Medical College Hospital
which also has a Medical College of more than 100 doctors and hundreds of
nurses and other paramedical staff getting graduated,"
"We wanted to use that experience here," Simon
says, adding that the hospital and college, which is more of a charity
initiative than a private commercial entity, will help address the shortage of
medical specialists in certain fields.
Simon says the project was supposed to be implemented in
three phases, with the first phase, which is the 220-bed hospital, estimated to
cost over $60m, subject to scaling. Phase two will see the expansion of the
hospital to 400 beds while phase three would be the Medical University.
However, sensing the urgent need to train medical personnel
in the country, at the beginning of this year 2024 the leadership of Believers
Eastern Church decided to simultaneously implement the first phase and the
medical college.
In Busanza, where the facility is being built, construction
works are underway and Simon says the medical college will go a long way in
training and equipping doctors and nurses from Rwanda and other African
countries.
"We need a lot of young African brothers and sisters to
be trained so that they can help their own people. We have the professional
doctors who can train them and they can become the best doctors possible,"
"We want to give them the best training possible, which
is the reason we want to do this University at the same time. We are looking at
100 students to be graduating at a time," Simon said.
He pointed out that being a missionary hospital, there are a
lot of doctors who want to come to Rwanda voluntarily to help as part of their
contribution and many have expressed interest once the facility is up and
running.
He says the modern hospital will also focus on serving
ordinary Rwandans and they are already looking to discuss with the government
to ensure that Mutuelle de Sante can be incorporated in their services.
Simon adds that once the hospital is up and running, it will
bring down the cost of treatment tremendously, particularly the type people
seek abroad, because once the equipment and expertise is in the country, the
cost is minimized.
A collaborative effort
Dr Andrew Nkurunziza, in charge of Public Relations and
Administration at Believers East African Limited says some of the factors that
contributed to the decision for Believers Eastern Church to consider Rwanda
include good governance, security and investor confidence in Rwanda.
He said Believers Eastern Church acquired the former Mount
Zion University and the equipment worth over Rwf80m was donated to Masaka
District Hospital and the Anglican College to pave way for the importation of
new modern equipment.
Dr. Nkurunziza pointed out they have acquired all the
permits and greenlight commence, with Chinese construction firm, Top
Engineering Company, which built the Prime Minister's office, contracted to
undertake the job.
"In three-to-six-months, college construction will
start. We intend to complete the first phase in 15 months," Nkurunziza
says, adding that upon completion, the hospital will become a medical hub,
attracting patients from across the continent.
Oommen Varghese, who is overseeing the engineering team,
says that construction of the hospital unit is currently at about 38 percent.
The facility will have two basements, a ground floor and
four more floors, with typical Mangalore tile roof.
"We began in the month of August 2023 and now we are
almost about seven months up and we plan to complete the civil engineering part
by March 2025 and after that we will have the mechanical, electrical plumbing
works,"
"We intend to complete the hospital project by early
2026, along with the university," Varghese said.
Apart from himself, Varghese says all the other engineers
and staff working on the project are all Rwandan.
Once complete, the hospital will offer services including
cardiology, oncology, neurosurgery, gastroenterology, endocrinology and many
others which people have been travelling to seek in other countries.
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