KIGALI - HUNDREDS of dental patients turned up yesterday at Gahanga Health Centre, Kicukiro District to be treated by Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) as part of its annual voluntary community service dubbed Army Week.

According to Capt. Jean Bosco Karangwa, the turn up was unexpected. He added that his team will spend four days at the health centre treating residents with dental problems.

"It is not good to simply ask the citizens to celebrate Liberation Day while they are struggling with some health problems like dental cavities yet we have skills to treat them. We decided to voluntarily give the community various services so as to have a true meaning of Liberation Day,” Capt. Karangwa said yesterday.

Various activitie, including the construction of houses for vulnerable people, are being carried out by the army across the country.

"Part of our team has been deployed to the Northern Province to carry out a similar exercise and several of our colleagues are in several parts of the country to voluntarily perform various tasks for 21 days,” Karangwa added.

Capt. Karangwa said that they also first took the residents through a session of how to prevent dental problems with emphasis on high levels of oral hygiene.

He, however, said that any patient with a severe dental problem will be transferred to Kanombe Military Hospital.
An elderly woman, Esther Mukantabana, was one of the beneficiaries. She said that she could not afford paying a dentist and was glad after being treated for free.

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