KIGALI - President Paul Kagame yesterday hosted a delegation of 38 people from leading universities in the United States, led by Ira Magaziner, the co-founder of Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI).

The delegation, from 16 top medical, nursing and health management schools, is in the country to create a partnership with the Ministry of Health.

Speaking to reporters after meeting the President, Magaziner said that they would work with their Rwandan colleagues to offer world class training.

"They have met about 55 of their Rwandan colleagues involved in medical education in universities and hospitals and they have planned the programme. By the end of seven years, Rwanda will have a world class health education system,” Magaziner said.

Magaziner, who co-founded CHAI with former US President Bill Clinton, said that the group had paid a courtesy call on the Head of State to brief him on the programme and seek his opinion and advice.

He noted that the programme is in line with the vision President Kagame shares with Clinton - to build a quality, world class healthcare system in Rwanda.

"The need is also to develop a base of highly educated people that can lead to the creation of research in health industries and the health economy of Rwanda, that is what we are working on with the leadership of the Ministry of Health,” Magaziner said.

The group will focus on several areas of specialty such as dentistry, nursing, obstetrics, paediatrics and many others providing diverse expertise.

"We are canvassing more support to this programme because once we come together, the vision that President Kagame has given us, of accelerating Rwanda into a middle income country will be achieved,” Prof. Patrick Kyamanywa, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the National University of Rwanda (NUR),said.

"We have to improve the products of our higher learning institutions and medicine is the most urgent of these”.

He noted that Rwanda was able to attract the experts from leading US universities because of its vision to build a quality, vibrant world class health and medical science system for the country.

"With these universities around and the discussions we are holding with them, I think we are going to come up with very concrete ways of trying to achieve this world class education as regards medical sciences,” Kyamanywa added.The programme is expected to kick off in a year.

The representatives were drawn from Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Duke, Virginia, Colorado, Texas and Maryland universities as well as leading nursing schools. 

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