President Paul Kagame, on June 15, said that despite the limited resources compared to the country’s needs, the government will find ways to remunerate community health workers and improve their livelihoods.

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He was addressing more than 8,000 community health workers, over 500 heads of public hospitals, and partners who gathered at BK Arena to reflect on their contributions, challenges, and potential solutions to improving Rwanda’s health sector.

More than 50,000 community health workers are the champions of primary healthcare across the country.

Kagame noted that much of the achievements the country registered were mainly thanks to community health workers who carry out their work without a reward or salary, and even those who get remuneration, it comes in small amounts vis-a-vis the work they do.

He said: "What hinders us from supporting all of you is the limited resources available compared to the different needs the country has across different sectors.”

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The critical role played by community health workers through volunteering and sacrifice is evident in many ways and a country whose people are not healthy cannot progress to anywhere, he added.

"A healthy life is the foundation to achieving everything else.”

The Head of State also noted that the country has a responsibility to provide capacity building for these community health workers to add on the volunteerism to deliver improved services.

"We also want to modernise the services of community health workers and where possible use technology. Going to the hospital shouldn’t seem like going to a shrine. Witch doctors don’t use technology.”

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Kagame said that in the journey of seeking knowledge, one acquires it because trainings are provided and technology is available to boost it.

He told the participants not to worry about their age, given that anyone has an opportunity to always learn regardless of their age.

He concluded by saying that whatever was achieved in the past years should be regarded as a normal thing to be done, but the focus should remain on what more can be achieved in the future.

Dr Sabin Nsanzimana, Minister of Health, said that among the achievements recorded include the new 246 ambulances the government has bought and the first batch of 80 ambulances were distributed to hospitals across the country.

This is in addition to the existing 247 ambulances available in the country.

He also noted that the country has seen a 146 per cent increase in health providers enrolled in schools as part of the strategy to quadruple healthcare workers in Rwanda.

Beatrice Magnifique is now celebrating 29 years as a community health worker in Kicukiro District, and she took note of some improvement seen in their line of work over the past years from only caring for children under five years to now reaching adults.

She said they underwent different training programmes in providing health services to the community including malaria, diarrhea/cholera, and antenatal care, awareness creation about non-communicable diseases, among others.

"We thank the good leadership that initiated community health workers and provided support in various ways including training and follow-ups. We are able to provide reports of our work to health centres.”

Emmanuel Munyaneza, a nurse at CHUK with 20 years of experience serving at different levels in healthcare system ,said that community health workers have filled a gap of decentralised health services given the limited number of nurses and midwives, among other health workers.

Yvan Butera, State Minister in the Ministry of Health, said they convened community health workers to thank their contributions to improving healthcare service delivery over the past 30 years and their stance in addressing health challenges by finding homegrown solutions.

He said that the results are visible in reduced maternal deaths, fighting malnutrition, reduced malaria cases, successful fight against the Covid-19, among other diseases.

Butera added that there will be continued efforts and collaboration in improving healthcare as the country continues to rely on community healthcare providers across.