Pastor Osee Ntavuka Founder of Rwanda Legacy of Hope
Rwanda Legacy of Hope (RLOH) is a Rwandan Charity registered in the UK and in Rwanda. The Director is Pastor Osee Ntavuka, a Rwandan Pastor. He was nearly murdered during the genocide and fled to the UK. The aim of the charity is to help with the rebuilding of Rwanda. There are several facets to the humanitarian work done by the charity. This includes Health, Education and Street Kids Rehabilitation Programmes.
Invitation to Operation Hernia
In 2012, Pastor Osee invited Operation Hernia to assist with the Health programme by sending a team of surgeons and nurses to treat patients with hernias. A team made up of a surgeon, a nurse and a physiotherapist visited Nyamata Hospital. 28 patients with hernias were treated successfully.
Partnership with Surgeons For Africa
Operation Hernia was subsequently joined in 2017 by a sister charity, Surgeons for Africa SFA), from Berlin in Germany. The Director is by Ralph Lorenz, an acclaimed hernia surgeon and educator. A lasting partnership was formed which has served the people of Rwanda very well since then. We have visited the following ten (10) hospitals: Gahini, Shyira, Remera Rukoma, CHUK, CHUB, Rwamagana, Ruhango, Kirinda and Kigeme.
Support for Surgical Specialties
The genocide depleted Rwanda of hospital specialists. There was a crying need for specialists in various fields. Operation Hernia and RLOH have therefore supported health delivery in Rwanda by send teams from various specialties:
1. Orthopaedics: Mr Andy Murphy
2. Neurosurgery: Mr Muquit, Dr Teresa Burnett, Justine Elliot, Lorenzo Dimpel, Georgios Tsermoulas
3. Ear Nose and Throat: Miss Montio Morgan; Miss Kate Heathcote, Dr Ian Geraghty
4. Plastic Surgery: Mr Antony Fitton
5. Breast Surgery: Mr Biku Ghosh
Neurosurgery Team Rwanda
Hernia Training Courses
The key plank to the humanitarian work done by the three charities is Training. In 2016, RLOH through funding, sourced by SFA, equipped Rwamagana Hospital as a Training Centre for training in appropriate and sustainable techniques in surgery. We have since held 3 successful Hernia Training Courses and published our experience. ( Improving Surgical Education in East Africa with a standardized Hernia training program Hernia (2021) 25:183–192).
The success of the work by RLOH and Operation Hernia has depended significantly on the incredible support received from the Rwanda Ministry of Health and the Heads of the Surgical Departments of the University Teaching Hospitals of Kigali (CHUK) and Butare (CHUB) and the Medical Directors of the district hospitals.