Shaki opens its doors for business!

After a long, and at times tortuous wait, the maternity unit at Shaki is finally open. 

Shaki is in a remote part of the diocese, and we can't underscore often enough how important this is. I last visited in 2015 at a time when the unit was still closed.  I asked what would happen if a woman had complications during birth, and was told that they would call an ambulance to take her the 3-hour drive to the nearest hospital at Kabgay. Now, I know the state of ambulances in rural Rwanda - and they are not all parked up, nearby and ready! So I asked what would happen if the ambulance was not available, then they said it would a Rwandan ambulance - 4 men and a stretcher - that would walk to the hospital, a trip lasting 8 hours. The woman sometimes didn't make it. So, to have a maternity unit there manned by trained midwives is a real blessing to that rural community.

We want to give heartfelt thanks to the generous sponsors to made this possible. They have literally been a life saver.

We have also taken funds from general funds to pay for equipment, and taken out knitted clothes for the first babies to be born.

The maternity unit has been built beside a small health post - not much more than a dispensary really -  and the plan is to have a fully functioning health centre there in the fullness of time. But there are plenty of limiting factors we have to work through: we need the funds to send out, they need to organise the resources there to get the building done, and work with the government oversight of plans and build quality.  

But of course, if we never start, we will never finish!

Every blessing,

Pete

Chairman