The First Lady, Jeannette Kagame, Friday delivered remarks at the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Conference in Malta.

Mrs. Kagame spoke on ‘The Role of Women – Educating Girls and Building Nations’ with an audience of 2,500 nurses from all over the world.

The ICN is a federation of more than 130 national nurses’ associations representing more than 13 million nurses worldwide, Rwanda Nurses and Midwives Association being one of them.

In her speech, the First Lady paid tribute to the 13 million nurses all over the world, for their endless sacrifices and the impact they continue to make in healthcare, observing that nursing is truly a calling.

"It is about restoring dignity and normalising the lives of people whose everyday realities have been changed, sometimes forever, by their condition,”

"Although nurses are often short on sleep, time and energy, they are rarely short on caring. With that much care, attention and reassurance half the battle toward recovery is won,” Mrs. Kagame said.

She highlighted the immense role played by nurses during the country’s liberation struggle, attending to wounded soldiers.

Mrs Kagame said that with insufficient trained medical personnel and supplies, nurses worked tirelessly to preserve and protect the lives of soldiers and others in the harsh battlefield environments.

In reference to Rwanda, the First Lady said that the majority of nurses are women, as it is globally, who play a prominent in nation building.

She noted that after 1994 the Genocide against the Tutsi, the country was left in dire need of nurses and other medical personnel, but the country has since come from far by establishing an efficient health system.

"Today the country is stable, secure and on the right path to recovery and progress,” she said.

"Women have been instrumental in this process of nation-building and this is reflected in our policies that are aimed towards building a nation of skilled, dignified and empowered Rwandans,” she added.

She highlighted the majority presence of women in parliament (56 %) which surpasses the minimum set by the constitution at 30%, the highest representation of women parliamentarians in the world.

"In Rwanda, we have understood that a nation can flourish only if women participate on an equal footing. As President Kagame said; ‘Participation of women is not a debate, the discussion is on how best we can do it’,” Mrs. Kagame said.
 
"It has also been important for us in Rwanda to approach nation-building in a holistic manner, given the challenging environment of a country that is rebuilding its physical and economic infrastructure,” she added

The First Lady told the gathering that every woman and man must be fully engaged in the socio-economic transformation agenda, of which health and education are key pillars, which is what Rwanda is doing.
 
On health, she said that Rwanda had chosen to promote access to disadvantaged populations, through a community based health insurance scheme, locally known as ‘Mutuelles de Sante’.

"This has considerably reduced financial barriers and as a result, health insurance coverage has increased from 3 percent in 2002 to 92 percent in 2010,”

"Communities identify their most disadvantaged members, who cannot afford to pay and the government pays the premium as well as treatment costs. Increased access to health care is a means to reduce the number of maternal deaths,” Mrs. Kagame said.

She also highlighted the country’s successful fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, reducing prevalence rates from 13 percent to 3 percent, through a successful national Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS (PMTCT) programme.

The First Lady also informed the gathering of the first ever comprehensive cervical cancer vaccine and testing program.

The vaccine targets adolescent girls between 11 and 15 years of age, who are not yet sexually active; besides screening to be provided to women aged between 35 and 45 years.

The ICN annual conference under the theme ‘Nurses driving access, quality and health’, ends on May 8.

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