Visually impaired professionals, working as massage therapists, are set to gain breast cancer screening skills, thanks to a new agreement with a German investor.
The development is also expected to boost their employability on the labour market
COGNOS International-a private and independent education company in Germany that operates universities in Europe including LUNEX International University of Health, Exercise and sports, signed an agreement with Seeing Hands Rwanda on July 19, 2022, to train visually impaired persons in massage therapy and breast cancer screening.
Seeing Hands Rwanda is an organisation aimed to improve the social and economic wellbeing of people with visual impairments.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Daniel Ngamije, who graced the signing of the agreement, said having visually impaired persons who can screen for early signs of breast cancers is timely considering that there is a need for enhancing campaigns in screening breast cancer in Rwanda and increasing employability among visually impaired people.
According to Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) and Rwanda Cancer Registry, 52 per cent of breast cancer patients present their cancer with stage 3, and 24 per cent with stage 1, due to patients being unaware of their status. 60 per cent go to health centres with late presentation of the disease, mainly during stages 3 and 4.
The visually impaired persons will gain skills in massage therapy as well as breast cancer screening between six months and 12 months.
"We need more physiotherapists in hospitals and health centres to help patients who need therapy after orthopedic surgery services and people with disabilities,” Ngamije said.
Matthias Afting, the CEO of COGNOS International, said the cooperation will improve the social and economic wellbeing of people with visual impairments as they use gained skills to get jobs.
"We will support them with curriculum, send off teachers and give them access to training materials.
We are happy to educate blind people to become breast cancer screening specialists so they are much more likely to detect breast cancer and play an important role in society to fight breast cancer,” he said.
Beth Gatonye, founder of Seeing Hands Rwanda, said that she has so far trained 50 visually impaired people in massage therapy adding that the support to train them on breast cancer screening will boost their employability.
Establishing health sciences and sports institute
COGNOS International also signed an agreement with Rwanda Polytechnic (RP), with the aim of establishing an institute to educate young people from Rwanda and abroad in health sciences and sports starting next year.
The signing ceremony was presided over by Claudette Irere, the Minister of State in charge of ICT, Technical Vocational Education and Training in the Ministry of Education.
Sylvie Mucyo, the Vice-Chancellor of Rwanda Polytechnic, said that the institute to be established will focus on rehabilitation, sports and exercise sciences as well as nutrition courses among other areas.
"Our graduates will be professionals to work in the sports industry working as physiotherapists. They will treat people who have injuries but also people with disabilities and people who need different lifestyles,” she said.
The institute is needed, she said, considering that there are 400 physiotherapists practicing and 70 who are only licensed in Rwanda.
"This means we have less than one physiotherapist per 10,000 people who need such services, yet we are increasing health services across the country in hospitals being constructed while people also need personalised services. We need to contribute to the skills development to have professionals working in this field,” she noted.