In the center of Gataraga, construction workers are putting the final bricks on the exterior of a large building, resplendent with a shiny red roof and large columns. Gataraga is a tiny sector in the district of Musanze, famous for its volcanic mountains and gorillas. Perhaps inspired by the 1988 movie “Gorillas in the Mist,” thousands of tourists travel to Musanze each year to see the mountain gorillas, making it Rwanda’s top destination.  Yet this new building - which is causing excitement among the people of Gataraga - isn’t a museum or a hotel. It is a health center.

Alice Uwabera has worked as a supervisor for the Gataraga sector office for a number of years. She has seen the population of 21,000 people in her sector suffer from a lack of quality health services. Although Rwanda’s Ministry of Health established guidelines stating that every sector should have its own health center, it isn’t the reality in some places like Gataraga. It is one of many sectors throughout Rwanda that operate without a health center, which leads to an exacerbation of many illnesses and injuries.

“The problems that arise from the lack of a health center are numerous. When people are ill, they have to go to another sector to receive care, that means walking two hours by foot to the Busogo or Muhoza sectors,” said Alice. “Someone with malaria or HIV can get another illness as they are walking, or even a pregnant mother can develop complications. The people here sometimes go to see ‘traditional’ doctors or self-medicate because they don’t want to travel so far.”

The Gataraga Health Center is scheduled to open this August and the people of Gataraga will not have to travel more than a short distance to receive medical care.  The Access Project, which partners with Rwanda Works to develop health care infrastructure, received financial support from the Pace Family Foundation to build the new health center. The construction team handling this project is the same team that built the new Gashora and Ngeruka health centers in Bugesera last year. Like Gashora and Ngeruka, Gataraga will be a model health center for the Musanze district and will provide comprehensive health services to the people in the sector. The main building will have a waiting area, consultation and procedure rooms, a laboratory room, rooms for maternity, hospitalization, voluntary counseling and testing and antiretroviral drug services, an administrative center, a nutritional center and rooms for health education.

Three miles away, Marie Musabyimana, the head nurse for the Busogo Health Center, welcomed the news of the Gataraga Health Center. Marie has been at Busogo for four years and her staff of 16 serves approximately 120 patients per day. With over 44,000 people in the Busogo sector, the health center is often overcrowded as patients from their sector as well as Gataraga seek medical care.

“The Gataraga Health Center will be very helpful to us in easing overcrowding and helping pregnant women with emergency conditions,” said Marie.

Samuel Niyibigira, the head nurse for the Muhoza Health Center, echoed Marie’s statements, as he stood in the middle of the crowded waiting room. “We have a very small building, six offices for consultation and too many patients,” he said. “With a population of 80,600 people in Muhoza and just 20 nurses on staff, we can’t afford any new patients, especially from another sector. A new health center is necessary here in town. We need about three health centers in this area, but the Gataraga health center will help with the overcrowding here,” said Samuel.

One health center in the middle of Gataraga will affect the lives of over 145,600 people as it will offer critical services to the patients in its sector, while relieving the burden on two other sectors.