​Editor,

Refer to Sunny Ntayombya’s article, NGOs and families should not be left to feed hospital patients (The New Times, September 17). This article really made my day.

Every day you see people coming to CHUK (University Teaching Hospital, Kigali) to offer social assistance towards the needy patients at the national referral hospital.

Sometimes there is what I may call a "social traffic jam” Muslims, Adventists and a host of other well-wishers flock to the hospital on a daily basis with food and clothes for the poor patients.

Even I and some friends have once brought a little money to pay for hospital bills for those that could not afford to pay.

The other problem that the columnist forgot to mention is the fact that some (if not most) of these people who are given food are those detained by the hospital authorities because they could not pay for the medical services.

I think the best way is to help the hospital have its own restaurant that shall provide food for all.

Tippo

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Sunny simply took the words right out of my mouth. I agree with him. As stated, I think there is a big role the insurance providers can play regarding this, by say increasing the premiums (e.g. for community health insurance), and I am sure the government could lend a hand as well.

And having kitchens in the hospitals means some people will get jobs too, which is a win-win to me.

Harmonie

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I do agree with Mr. Ntayombya and other commentators; we should have a national discussion on how we could, as a society, deal with this problem and not leave it entirely on to poor families with even more strained means or voluntary organisations to deal with it.

Moreover, solutions involving public provision of meals to in-patients would benefit those supplying the food as well as those workers preparing and serving it, which means the country as a whole gains and, therefore, the resources used should not be solely put in the expenditure column; they become income for other sectors and people whose purchasing power, in turn, increases.

As for Mr. Ntayombya’s closing question regarding what protection a well meaning NGO has against a lawsuit, the unfortunate answer is exactly the beneficiaries’ poverty.

The families of those in-patients dependent on NGO-provided food are just too poor and, like most poor people, will usually also be unaware that they might have legal avenues to redress any harm from consuming unwholesome food provided by their NGO benefactors.

Plus, it is not in the culture of Rwandans to bite the hand that feeds you (no pun intended), even if you had that option.

Mwene Kalinda

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This is a very valid opinion. However, I would suggest that NGOs should partner with hospitals to feed the patients at the hospital instead of them [NGOs] bringing the meal.

We cannot discourage this good cause. We can’t afford to suddenly uproot the decades-long culture of feeding our sick.

Hassan