I was very fortunate to be able to take a trip to Rwanda to participate in their neonatal training scheme, in what was termed a “respiratory bootcamp”.
Rwanda is a small country of 23000 km2, with a young population of over 14 million, and 400,000 births annually. Which I can’t help comparing to Quebec, with an area of 1.5 million km2, a population of 9 million and annual births of 80,000.
There has been remarkable progress in perinatal health care and outcomes over the last decade, with a marked improvement in the proportion of deliveries attended by a trained birth assistant, and taking place in an institution (now >95%), with a dramatic reduction in maternal mortality from over 1000 to about 300/100,000 births. This has been accompanied by a decrease in stillbirth rates, and in neonatal mortality. There are now 3 NICUs in Kigali, and another in development in Butare, with 4 neonatologists in the country, all in Kigali. Their young fellowship program will soon have the first locally trained neonatologists. I feel privileged to have been a small part of this program.
In addition to visiting the NICUs and spending time with fellows, nurses and staff, I was able to take a tour of the country, visiting the 3 of their 4 national parks where there is accommodation. The fourth is currently being developed. I started in Volcanoes national park, where I was able to pursue one of my interests, viewing wildlife and bird photography. You can click on any photograph to see it full-sized.
These 3 are all Sunbirds, a large family with very colourful males, and almost uniformly drab females, who eat nectar, filling a similar ecological niche to the Hummingbirds of the Americas.
In Volcanoes park, a small troupe of Golden Monkeys were eating and watching us carefully, but I decided against buying the permit to view the Mountain Gorillas, maybe next time. I also visited some wetlands in the region, and photographed the birds below, among many others.
Then on to Nyungwe national park, which is in the South-west corner of the country
And has troupes of Black-and-white Colobus and Blue Monkeys
We visited another wetlands as we headed back eastwards
Then on to Akagera national Park, the oldest and largest in Rwanda
Masai Giraffes and Plains Zebras in a Valley of the Akagera park.
I was able to return to Akagera for another day, later in my trip
In Kigali, close to the airport, there is a preserved wetlands, which has been turned into an Eco-park.
If you are interested, there are many other photos on my other blog, keithbarrington.com
Neonatal Research 