A group of health care volunteers that travels annually to Rwanda is making plans for their 2017 trip to the East African country. A Partnership in Caring Society (APICS) is pleased to announce Nurse Lynn MacDonald and Psychiatrist Dr.Carolyn Rideout will be leaving in mid-January.
They will be in Rwanda providing ongoing support to several projects in the Butare area of Southern Rwanda. Among the projects APICS supports is the Association for the Development of Blind people and others handicapped in Rwanda (ADAR). ADAR is an orphanage that provides a stable home for thirty physically and mentally handicapped children in Butare, Rwanda. Another project APICS supports is the Benebikira Sisters, a Roman Catholic diocesan community living and working in many countries in Africa, including Rwanda. The Benebikira Sisters administer schools in Rwanda, including fourteen boarding schools at the Secondary level, six Primary schools, and two Vocational schools. The sisters have built four of these schools on their own.
Lynn MacDonald (left) and Carolyn Rideout (right), A Partnership in Caring Volunteers who will travel to Rwanda in January, 2017
APICS also supports supports Butare University Teaching Hospital (BUTH). It is a five hundred bed hospital that serves a rural population of two million people. The hospital is staffed by thirty-two specialist doctors and two hundred and fifty-five nurses. BUTH treats seven thousand inpatients and forty-nine thousand, two hundred outpatients annually. APICS works with the hospital’s social work department by purchasing food for the hospital.
Regular updates on Carolyn’s and Lynn’s work in Rwanda will be posted on our new web site, www.apartnershipincaring.com, and on A Partnership in Caring’s Facebook page. Donations to support our ongoing work can be made via PayPal on our web site, or by mail to A Partnership in Caring Society, c/o Elsa Jensen, P.O. Box 1481, Antigonish, NS B2G 2L7. For more information, A Partnership in Caring can be reached via email at apic.rwanda@gmail.com or call (902) 870-7863.
A Partnership in Caring’s Chair Maria van Vonderen would like to thank the public for their ongoing support. “Our goal is to raise $10,000 annually to support projects in Rwanda,” said van Vonderen. “A Partnership in Caring Society will be making its seventh trip to Rwanda in 2017. Over the years we have build strong and lasting partnerships. Your support enables us to continue this important work in Rwanda.”