Great news the new Maternity and Neonatology ward has been completed and handed over to Kibogora Hospital!
On Thursday the 10th of November the Deputy Mayor, representatives of the Rwandan Free Methodist Church, Kibogora Hospital board and the Better Together committee plus other interested parties were given a tour of the new facilities. Then in a ceremony in Kibogora Hospital conference room I had, on behalf of the Better Together Partners, the honour of presenting Bishop Samuel with a package which included a set of plans, the Government issued certificates confirming the new building had passed all inspections and was approved to be used and most importantly a set of keys for the building. This officially transferred the ownership of the new maternity building to the Hospital.
In the coming days there will be further transfer of equipment to the new building. In early 2023 the Ministry of Health will be supplying a lot of new equipment which will enable the new unit to become fully functioning.
Action Kibogora in the UK and CAHO in the USA are extremely grateful to all the donors on both sides of the Atlantic who between them have given over £1,000,000 ($ 1,200,000) which has enabled the construction of this excellent new facility. This generosity will ensure a generation of new mothers will give birth without having to share a bed and will provide the staff with a greatly improved working environment which should lead to a greater level of care for mothers and their babies.
The construction of the ward was done in 5 phases,
1. Demolition of existing laundry and kitchen and construction of replacements
2. Excavation of the site and building retaining walls
3. Pouring the concrete foundations
4. Erection of the building shell
5. Internal finishing.
At no time during any of these phases did we have more than 50% of the funds needed for completion. Yet by the time we were due to pay the invoice the money had miraculously appeared with enough extra to allow us to begin the next phase. This has been an exercise of moving in faith that the Lord would provide what was needed when it was needed. I admit I had some wobbly moments and some sleepless nights, particularly in the early part when it seemed likely we would have to stall the work until we had more money, but I was reminded of Jesus words in Matthew 8 “You of little faith, why are you afraid”. The result speaks for itself.