Monday, March 17, 2008

orthopedicsneeded

A few days ago, we evaluated facilites the Kibagabaga Hospital in Kigali to help coordinate plans for an upcoming medical service visit sby doctors and nurses from Washington. We found that one of the most pressing need is for orthopedic services, since there is no orthopedic surgeon in the country, with a population of about eight million. We learned that just the equipment costs for such a program are staggering: one bid from a company in Belgium was over $100,000, or about 400 times the average annual wage. Without a way to collect te necessary capital, and with a population unable to pay for surgery, it will take some creative thinking to make an orthopedics program at Kibagabaga a reality.

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