BOSTON - The First Lady, Mrs. Jeannette Kagame, on Sunday attended as a guest of honour, a fundraising dinner for both the Maranyundo Initiative and Partners in Health, organizations that work in Rwanda. The dinner was organized by the Ruettgers family at their residence in Boston.

The Maranyundo Initiative established the Maranyundo Girls’ School in Nyamata in February this year. Under the leadership of Sister Anne Fox, the School was built through mobilization of funds and partnership between Boston and Rwanda.

In her remarks, Mrs. Kagame said that she was "confident the school would act as one of the avenues through which leadership opportunities would be created for Rwandan girls, working in synergy with the vision of a country that is resolute on moving forward.”

Sister Anne Fox pledged that Maranyundo Girls School aimed to be one of the very best schools in Rwanda.

On Partners in Health, Mrs. Kagame stated that "their significant community-based health interventions have contributed to changing the face of health-care in Rwanda.”

Partners in Health is a non-governmental organization dedicated to delivering quality health-care to communities devastated by poverty and disease.

In his remarks, Dr. Paul Farmer of Partners in Health said that, "to work where you have the support of the government which aims to stop poverty with their 2020 Vision, never have I been to a place where I can see this happening more than in Rwanda.”

In Rwanda since 2005, PiH established the Rwinkwavu Hospital, and has contributed greatly to improving health-care systems for hundreds of thousands of Rwandans of the Kirehe and Kayonza districts in the Southern Province.

In total, the dinner, through a combination of auctioned items and contributions from sponsors, raised an amount that was slightly over US$ 1,000,000. 

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