Over 800 health workers from across the country are undergoing a two-week civic education, locally called Itorero, at Rwanda Defence Forces Combat Training Centre in Gabiro.

The training started on Sunday and will go on through December 5.

The trainees include staffers from the Ministry of Health officials, workers in referral hospitals, health centres and district hospitals, district leaders in charge of health care, workers from private health institutions, and partners in the sector.

An official document from the ministry outlines various reasons for the civic education.

It is aimed at training participants in values and taboos of their profession as well as of the Rwandan culture, helping them understand the future and goals of the country especially in the health sector, helping them understand the history of Rwanda, giving them a platform of sharing ideas so as to work for the development of the nation, especially through citizen centred service delivery.

The workers will be trained by leaders in the health sector who underwent a training of their own earlier this month.

These were selected from workers of the Ministry of Health, private health institutions, and partners in the sector.

Briefing the participants on Sunday, Patrick Ndimubanzi, the state minister for public and primary healthcare, said the civic education initiative has come to help address the problems that had been showing up in the health sector, especially concerning ethics of health professionals.

"After the genocide the country needed rebuilding. Today, we have done a lot. However, there have been problems in our service provision whereby some workers have dropped the values for our profession and our values as Rwandans. So we decided to organise this Itorero so we can learn these values and taboos,” he said.

Among the challenges cited are: shortage of health workers and failure of those available to do their work efficiently, retention challenges, not doing assignments in time, poor reception for patients, poor management of resources, inability to respond to epidemics, among others.

"It will be a time of understanding where we want to reach as a country in terms of health, knowing everyone’s responsibility and understanding the values of a good health worker worthy of serving Rwandans. The country expects a lot from you after here. We have to leave here ready to work for our national pride. We want positive and immediate changes,” Ndimubanzi said.

What the health workers say

Violette Ayingeneye, the Ruhengeri Hospital director, said she expects that after the Itorero, health workers will be able to strive to build a good image of the sector by showing love to patients, displaying Rwandan values and providing good services.

"As Rwandans we ought to protect what we have built. After this training, we shall excel in managing the resources of the institutions we are heading, stop such things as poor handling of equipment, or leaving water taps open when no one is collecting water,” she said.

Dr Jean Nyirinkwaya, the chief executive officer of La Croix Du Sud Hospital in Kigali, said that he expects the health workers to use the training as an opportunity to learn from each other’s experience in order to forge ways of providing better services,

Theobald Hategekimana, the director of the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK), said the initiative is very important.

For him, good values of any professional are not determined by the skills learned in school but the civic education one gets in life.

"You can have several degrees but still provide poor services. Before colonial times, Rwandans gave good services yet they were only trained in families,” he said.

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