Rwanda ebrief from

Cathy Jamieson MP
28th February 2011

During the Parliamentary recess, I The visit was particularly timely as The
travelled to Rwanda, as part of a UK Government’s recently launched
small Parliamentary delegation ‘Framework for Results: Choices for
organised by Results UK. Women’ paper that tackles maternal
health distinctly overlooks the links
The purpose of the visit was to learn
between TB and maternal health. The
more about how Rwanda is addressing
TB epidemic is a clear example of how
major health challenges, specifically
the Millennium Development Goals
tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS co-
overlap.
infection, and to learn about the impact
of international aid. We visited a
number of TB control programmes and
spoke to patients, health workers, and
government officials. We were also
able to find out more about the
increasing challenges countries face
due to the interaction of TB and HIV
and emerging drug resistant strains of
TB. We also looked into how UK Aid is
currently being utilised in the fight
TB is the biggest killer of people living
against TB and HIV in Rwanda and the
with HIV (PLWHA), and without
potential areas where the UK can
treatment 90 per cent of PLWHA who
continue to play a significant role in the
get TB will die. TB kills more women
future.
than all causes of maternal mortality
combined and women with TB are
twice as likely to give birth prematurely
or have a baby with low birth weight.
Pregnant women with TB who receive
a late diagnosis are four times as likely
to die in childbirth and diagnosis of TB
in children is particularly difficult, with a
significant lack of paediatric tools. In
fact, most of the TB drugs, diagnostics
and vaccines in use today are over 50
years old, highlighting the need for
continued investment in research –
where Scotland is leading the way.

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 Rwanda is half the size of Scotland
but has twice as many people
living in the country

Life expectancy is 56 years for men

and 59 for women

The majority of the population are

Christian

Plastic carrier bags are banned on

Local Elections took place during my environmental grounds
visit and I was an official observer.
Funding from DFID has helped improve
The no smoking ban extends to
the electoral process, and I observed open air public places
the opening of the polls, votes being
cast, close of polls and the count.

As well as visiting Health projects, I

People queued up for the polls opening
at 6am, and polling officials took pride
in making their polling stations
welcoming.
travelled to the Millennium Village at
Mayange, where I met with a local
farmer, and women in a local craft co-
operative.
Some of the most moving parts of
the journey were visits to the
national genocide memorial in Kigali
which remembers the million people
who were killed in 100 days of
genocide in 1994, and the Nyamata
church where 2500 people were
slaughtered. We also met with
survivors who had been through the
reconciliation process, and now live
side by side in the same village.

If you would be interested in hearing more about my visit to

Rwanda, and international development issues generally, please
let me know, as I am arranging a meeting on this.
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Email me at cathy.jamieson.mp@parliament.uk