SHYIRA, a mountain village in North-West Rwanda.
Ninety years ago, in Shyira, a small mountain village in northwest Rwanda, a medical missionary and his wife built a hospital to serve the thousands of people living in the area around it. They puddled clay and built wood fired kilns to bake the bricks and the hospital still stands today. Although a small village, Shyira has achieved an extraordinary reputation; maybe because it was the first hospital ever built in Rwanda during a time when witch doctors provided the only medical care working in the jungle which covered the country. In 2017 a new, larger hospital was built in the valley below and Shyira’s hospital became a Health Centre. When President Kagame opened the new hospital, he referred to Dr Norman and Catherine James as the pioneers and said, “I am the Norman of today”!
Norman and Catherine are my parents and I was born in Ruanda-Urundi. My wife, Amanda, and I visited the hospital recently and observed the poverty of the people in the village and the strong Christian faith sustaining them despite the horrors of the 1994 genocide which they have survived but which has had lasting effects on them all.
Rwanda, The Land of a Thousand Hills.
Rwanda is a beautiful country known as the Land of a Thousand Hills. It is lush, green, and virtually corruption free and the second safest country in Africa. It is experiencing a buoyant revival in many areas although over 50% of the population still live in poverty. The government's model village programme has been successfully moving people from rural areas into new housing in the cities where there is more potential for earning money and a better standard of living. However, there is always also an opportunity for stimulating ways for local communities to earn money for themselves which can maintain extended family unity and village community.
