At least 18,000 people grouped in 4,200 households from Kabatwa Sector in Nyabihu District will benefit from a health post opened in the Volcano National Park area.

Inaugurated on Thursday, the health post was constructed under the tourism revenue sharing scheme by Rwanda Development Board (RDB) in conjunction with Local Administrative Entities Development Agency (LODA) and HORIZON SOPYRWA, the company supporting pyrethrum growing in the area.

According to Belise Kaliza, the RDB chief tourism officer, the health post cost Rwf45 million of which RDB provided Rwf23 million.

"This support is part of the initiative to show people that Volcano National Park is essential and that it deserves to be conserved and then generate revenues from tourism, which later helps government to enhance national development and the welfare of the people,” she said.

Kaliza said, since 2005, over Rwf2.9 billion from tourism revenue sharing scheme has been injected in 560 projects around Nyungwe, Akagera and Volcano national parks.

"Nyabihu residents around Volcano National Park have have, so far, been supported with Rwf361 million for 55 projects of which 17 are located in Kabatwa Sector,” she said.

Kaliza said 283 projects, worth Rwf1.1 billion, out of 560 projects under the tourism revenue sharing scheme across the country are around Volcano National Park; 143 projects, worth Rwf936 million, around Akagera National Park; and 134 projects, worth Rwf890 million, around Nyungwe National Park.

She added that 30 of the projects are related to health services – of which 11 are around Volcano National Park.

The projects are of various types such as water supply, health, schools, agriculture, beekeeping and other social protection programmes.

"This is a huge motivation for parks conservation. In past, the residents around the park would enter the park seeking herbal medicine while others would illegally exploit the park through activities such as poaching, which threatened biodiversity by endangerng species such as gorillas that are major tourist attractions,” she added.

‘Better days ahead’

Kaliza pledged that the revenue sharing will double (from the current 5 per cent) so as to increase the number of beneficiaries as well as support sustainable development infrastructure.

She urged residents around the park to continue playing their role in conservation, adding that RDB was in the process of reviewing guidelines on tourism revenue sharing scheme so that the support focuses on sustainable projects across the country.

"Besides the districts that have been benefitting from the scheme, we are going to add Rutsiro and Ngororero, which are near the newly-created Gishwati-Mukura National Park, so that no resident around the park misses out,” Kaliza said.

Figures show that tourism fetched $367.7 million for the national basket in 2015, before it increased to $404 million in 2016.

Beneficiaries speak out

Agnes Nyiransabimana, from Nyabihu, said pregnant women had grave challenges accessing health service.

"The health post will reduce maternal morbidity while concentration of many patients in one room will reduce because the of the new health post,” Nyiransabimana said.

The Director of Ruhengeri Hospital, Dr Violette Ayingeneye, who represented the Health ministry at the launch, said the health post is part of policy to increase health centres and ease access to health services.

"Over the last 20 years, health centres have also increased significantly. There is a target of increasing health centres from 474 to 1,700 all of which are composed of public and private facilities.

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