The Health Center Kaburantwa, run by the Benedictine Sisters of Providence for over 40 years, is the only one in the area of the province of Cibitoke. As the Mission is located near the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda many sick people come from these countries.
The war between the Hutu and Tutsi that has plagued Burundi from 1993 to 2005 has brought the population to poverty.
Patients therefore cannot in any way afford to pay medical bills, hence the expenses rest entirely on the health center management.
The situation is not yet fully normalized: clashes continue with moments of violence alternating moments of relative stability.
The Health Complex offers:
– outpatient care
– maternity ward (where more than 2,000 children are born each year);
– unit for malnourished children and orphans;
– preventative center for childhood diseases;
– hospital for the treatment of malaria, cholera, various infections, AIDS;
– Social-Educational Training Center (S.E.T.C.) for boys and girls from 12 years on up who, due to lack of means were excluded from public schools and where they are offered a chance to be literate and to start to learn a trade.
Currently the clinic provides outpatient care to a daily average of 200-250 patients.
The Preventative centre for childhood diseases provides consultations, vaccinations and health nutrition and education to groups of 100/120 children per day. In 2013 Africaon started the food project “Mothers and children of Kaburantwa”.
The assistance provided by Africaon is intended to ensure the diet integration of mothers and children with a food composed of milk + cereals = Musalac and Musalac and rice.
When mothers suffer from hunger and malnutrition, their children also suffer. Over 19 million children are born underweight each year; this is a consequence of inadequate nutrition of their mothers before and during the pregnancy. Children who grow up with an inadequate nutrition are likely to remain malnourished throughout childhood. Poor or inadequate nutrition can affect their growth, their health, their learning abilities, influencing their whole life.
