Solid Africa shares Christmas with hospital patients

Solid Africa, a Rwandan charity organisation that focuses on helping the vulnerable is donating household items worth $38,000 to vulnerable patients at six hospitals in the City of Kigali.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Cyuzuzo Ingabire of solid Africa(L) donates liquid soap to patients at Kibagabaga hospital. The New Times T.Kisambira

Solid Africa, a Rwandan charity organisation that focuses on helping the vulnerable is donating household items worth $38,000 to vulnerable patients at six hospitals in the City of Kigali. Yesterday, the organisation reached out to patients at Kibagabaga and Muhima hospitals. Patrick Nizeyimana, the Project Coordinator, Solid Africa, said the donation aimed at enabling poor patients to celebrate the festive season."Some of these patients get depressed when they see relatively well off people feasting,” Nizeyimana said.The president of the charity, Isabelle Kamariza,  said the benefactor to this donation is Susan Evans, an American Philanthropist who also met taxes that stood at $12,500.The items received included soap, clothes, dolls and sanitary pads, among othersOther hospitals to be covered in the three-day exercise include the Central University Kigali (CHUK), Masaka hospital and Rwanda Military Hospital–Kanombe.Brigitte Uwimana, one of the beneficiaries at Kibagabaga Hospital, expressed joy over the gesture."Having no job and nursing a sickly child is too challenging,” Uwimana said. Solid Africa also  feeds about 320 patients at CHUK and Muhima hospitals."Every month we dedicate about Rwf4.5m, raised from local and foreign donors, towards the improvement of the welfare of patients at these two hospitals,” Kamariza said, adding that they plan to extend  their support to other hospitals in Kigali.She said a strategy is underway to establish a big modern kitchen in Kigali valued at $250,000, that will be able to produce food for over 3,000 people.