The President of Jhpiego, an international NGO that deals with improving the health of women and families, has praised the commitment by the Rwandan government to improve women and children’s health-care.

Leslie D. Mancuso, who is currently on a visit to Rwanda, said this on Monday while discussing with the Rwandan Jhpiego team and health experts. Her visit to Rwanda coincides with the Mother and Child Healthcare week that started yesterday. 
Jhpiego is an affiliate of John Hopkins University and has been in existence for 35 years operating in more than 140 countries around the world.

The NGO has, since 2004, been in Rwanda offering technical support to some programmes on malaria and pregnancy and trained providers of emergency healthcare.

In collaboration with the government, Jhpiego aimed at having a common vision on how to reduce the maternal mortality by building the local capacities to be able to manage any complications during and after the mothers’ delivery.

Mancuso explained that she came to Rwanda because she knows the country has a great commitment to improving health of women and their newborn children.

"I have met some government officials, but what I feel is their passion and dedication to work to improve the status of women and children,” she said in an interview.

She explained that her visit to Rwanda aims at learning the progress of the country regarding women and children healthcare, in a move to be more supportive to the existing efforts. 

Jhpiego Country Director Jeremie Zoungrana noted that a lot is yet to be achieved in improving the healthcare for women and children despite the improvement, illustrating that indicators show that around 750 women over 100,000 die during the delivery.

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