Rwanda Defence Force officer treating a patient in Nyamata during the Army Week
Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) Army Week is concluding with records that will leave a mark in the lives of thousands of beneficiaries.
From May 2nd to date, RDF has been conducting activities intended to improve the wellbeing of Rwandan community – under the army week.
Although the Army is still making follow-ups on some activities, the army week concluded on July 4th – activities including construction of houses for the needy, road maintenance, farming and most importantly healthcare.
With these activities, RDF has saved the country Rwf 16 billion which it would have paid to hire manpower, consultants or medical practitioners.
Medical activities registered big success. As of July 7th, free medication under The Army Week had benefited 118,767 patients and RDF team is still handling more cases.
Epiphanie Uwamariya 19, resident of Gihombo sector in Nyamasheke district is a living testimony of the free medication.
For the last two years, Uwamariya suffered tooth gum complication – it began swelling strangely until her face deformed.
“At some point I could think that my boyfriend would reject me because of the deformation,” said Uwamariya.
The girl who had booked several appointments at the Kigali based University Teaching Hospital (CHUK) obliged her parents to borrow up to Rwf 600,000 from the neighbour for her medication.
When doctors in army week reached her area, she turned up and was referred to Kanombe military hospital.
“The RDF restored my face. My parents were about to start complaining because I was impoverishing them,” Uwamariya told KT Press.
The healthcare part of the army week included ophthalmology services, ear, nose and throat cases, gynecology, orthopedics among others.
All the services would cost Rwf 1,645,785,000 if done by private medical practitioners, but RDF did it at Rwf 679,000,000 total cost, thus saving Rwf 966,785,000 of the country coffers.
The activities took them to 42 health centres and hospitals across the country.
Agriculture is another area where the Army Week saved a lot through cultivating 5139 hectares to grow essential crops and this helped save Rwf 2 billion.
Army week started at a time when Rwanda was fighting a serious maize and sorghum pest –Army Worms. RDF helped spray pesticides in crops farms, planted alternative crops – mainly sweet potatoes to fight an eventual food shortage.
Construction of houses is probably the biggest contribution of Army Week in monetary terms, with Rwf 6.4 billion saved.
