A new maternal health centre expected to serve at least 7,000 people was last week launched in Munyaga Sector, Rwamagana District. The government of Korea, through their international organisation, Better World-Rwanda funded the project.

Construction and equipment for the facility, which also has a health post, is estimated to be over Rwf60 million.

The facility is progressively expected to be developed into a fully-fledged health centre by 2017.

Park Yong-min, the Korean Ambassador to Rwanda, reaffirmed his country’s commitment to partnering with Rwanda in a number of development programmes.

Karim Uwizeyimana, the Mayor of Rwamagana District, commended the support from the Korean government.

Meanwhile, the Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB) revealed plans to conduct countrywide sensitisation campaigns on payment of health insurance (Mutuelle de Santé) premiums for this fiscal year.

Newly appointed director-general of RSSB, Jonathan Gatera, said there is need to remind the public to pay their health insurance premiums.

According to Gatera, the number of those who have paid for health insurance is too low but sensitisation campaigns will see an increase in paying for the insurance.

Finance Minister Claver Gatete acknowledged that Mutuelle de Santé faced many challenges, including embezzlement of funds in districts but said durable solutions were underway.

In the same week, the Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) embarked on a process to adopt best practices from other countries on how to tackle occupational hazards.

RSB, in partnership with British and Swedish standards bodies, wants to train its staff on the new standard (ISO 45001) about occupational health and safety to lessen burden of injuries and diseases in workplaces.

The move was revealed at the opening of a regional workshop in Kigali on occupational health and safety management systems which attracted officials from RSB and other standards bodies in the region.

Dr Marc Cyubahiro, the director-general of Rwanda Standards Board, said enhancing participation of the region and global experts in the field will help Rwanda improve safety and health conditions in the workplace.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health expressed optimism in the fight against HIV with the new "finger prick” HIV/AIDS testing method that would encourage more people to seek voluntary counselling and testing services as part of efforts to prevent new infections. The new method was launched during the recently concluded expo in Gikondo, Kigali.

Dr Placidie Mugwaneza, the director of HIV/AIDS Prevention Unit at Rwanda Biomedical Centre, said the new method is free, simple, and less painful. In the new method, a finger is pricked to obtain a blood sample that is smeared on one end of a testing device pad.

In a related development, Rwanda received 15 specialised equipment that will help treat patients with kidney diseases. The equipment, donated by a team from Japan’s Tukushukai Medical Corporation, will be distributed to the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali and the University Teaching Hospital of Butare.

Compiled by Solomon Asaba