EPIPHANIE MUKAKIMENYI has lived a painful life.  Over 12 years ago, she was diagnosed with polyps, abnormal cellular growths that can turn cancerous, leaving her vulnerable despite the fact that she had to take care of her four children.

A resident of Ntongwe sector, Ruhango District in Southern Province, Mukakimenyi says that life was difficult and she could not find any treatment.

She first suffered from cervical myomas, a benign tumor of the uterine muscle that she sought treatment for, before she realised she also suffered Rectal Polyp.

"I got treated for my myomas but I later realised that I also had Rectal Polyp disease, which I didn’t know before, and I have been living with for 12 years,” she says.

She adds that life has been hard since then as she had to take care of her kids.

"Whenever I wanted to ease myself, it was so painful, I could also bleed and it was very challenging. Besides, my backbone hurt a lot, I could hardly work but because I had no option as a widow, I had to do all I could to raise my kids,” she testifies.

Mukakimenyi lived through this for over a decade and had little hope that she could one day be treated. This, she says was because the first time she was diagnosed, she had to pay huge amount after she was told that she could not get treatment using mutuelle de santé.

"I first got treatment under mutuelle de santé but later was told that the insurance could not cover the treatment of the disease I had - so I had to pay for myself and it was hard for me to raise the medical fees,” she says, adding that she had to pay about Rwf50,000 for treatment.

It was not until recently when Mukakimenyi heard of the programme by Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) medical doctors who planned an outreach initiative to treat people with long-term diseases.

The initiative is part of the RDF Citizen Outreach programme which sees men and women in uniform involved in various activities such as construction, agriculture and health among others, in a bid to improve citizens’ welfare as their contribution to social economic development.

This time around, medical doctors are treating people in Ruhango hospital in Ruhango district. Hundreds of patients who had been on the waiting list for a long time are being operated on as others are getting various treatments.  

Restoring hope

It is through this programme that Mukakimenyi received surgery and found relief - and she couldn’t be thankful enough.

Sitting on a bed inside the patients’ room in Ruhango hospital, Mukakimenyi smiled despite some pains as a result of operation.

"RDF medical doctors treated me and I feel a bit improved, I hope that I will be better soon,” she says.

"I had no hope for treatment as it could take time and cost me some money, yet now I am getting free treatment, I only paid some coins for photocopying and some other papers (less than Rwf1000).  I am thankful to RDF doctors who operated on me, it shows that they care for us not only by ensuring our security but also our health as well,” she says

In fact, Mukakimenyi is one of about 40,000 people the RDF Citizen Outreach programme has touched since it was launched early in April, according to RDF officials.

In addition, 17,784 men have been circumcised while over 2,000 people have been voluntarily counseled and tested for HIV/Aids.

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