Osteopathy Without Borders – Rwanda Mission 2024
First week by Anne Pouhlies:
After last year’s successful mission, another team of four osteopaths departed for Rwanda on 16th November 2024 to return on 1st December 2024.
It comprised of Faisal Naqvi, leading the mission for OWB, coming from Montreal, Canada; Heidi Gaissmeier from Munich, Germany – both present in 2023 – and 2 new members : Leonie Raube from Hamburg, Germany and Anne Poulhies from Malta.
Jean Damascene Ngamba Bigiminarama, physiotherapist, CEO of HealthEdu Ltd and community manager of Jamk Rehabilitation in Rwanda along with Peter Kaberuka, physiotherapist/owner at Ineza physical therapy clinic, collected the team at Kigali airport and, like the previous year, Peter drove us around the city and the country for all the mission duration. This time, he was assisted by his brother Alphonse Kaberuka who also put his personal life on hold for 2 weeks to take care of us every single day. We were very spoiled.
The first workday was dedicated to an “ Introduction to Osteopathy” course for healthcare professionals and students at the University of Rwanda – College of Medicine & Health Sciences (UR-CMHS), taught by Faisal. The teaching part of our missions is to explore the feasibility of creating a local school of osteopathy in Rwanda, letting healthcare professionals realize the increased health osteopathy can provide without added high-technology.
In an unfortunate turn of events, Faisal had to go back to Montreal that evening due to sudden family bereavement.
It was then decided that the second day of presentation would be changed to treating these same students by the remaining 3 osteopaths. This turned out to be a very good way to demonstrate how an osteopathic consultation unfolds and how the principles, thought process and techniques taught the previous day could be put into practice.
After a day of rest, the following 2 days were spent treating patients, locals and expats, some of them were treated during the previous mission and also new patients, thanks to the word of mouth and the network background work from Peter and the team to advertise. Many patients did not know about osteopathy but had heard how beneficial it was for people in their entourage.
Thank you to Jean Damascene for setting up the booking system, Peter for dealing with all the bookings and Alphonse for running around the campus all day to rescue the lost patients trying to find us!!
That same evening, the team headed to the beautiful Ishobe resort for 2 nights, with a warm welcome from owner Chantal Umuraza Esi and her wonderful staff. Those of the team who were there last year could admire how much work/improvement had happened since their last visit!
The following day was dedicated to treating the resort’s staff and Kanyinya residents. On the second day, the team visited the Akagera National Park, also organized by Chantal’s own travel company ‘Art & Travel Rwanda’.
I treated Sandrine (her case study is mentioned in last year’s report) who was a victim of the genocide.
She said she felt better after Faisal’s treatment last year. The headaches have decreased a lot. Some face pain and tiredness remain. She was very relaxed and trustful during the whole treatment.
I am very grateful I was able to treat patients who were victims of the genocide. It is quite impressive to see how such level of trauma imprints deeply into the body and the PRM.
I experienced how challenging and long it took to manage to get a bit of release in the tissues sometimes. It would be great to work in parallel with mental health practitioners, to allow further and quicker physical release.
There were a few patients I could/wanted to see a second time before leaving. It is so nice to see them get better, especially when knowing they will not get another treatment before a while. I remember a patient in her 70’s who came with an acute shoulder pain, not sleeping, feeling down etc then came back with a big smile the following week.
On the other hand, how frustrating it is to start a treatment and leave before you have done all you could do to help, when you know they would need 1 or 2 more sessions.
Second week by Leonie Raube:
At the beginning of the second week, the team left Chantal Umuraza Esi’s beautiful place and her great staff in Kanyina to reach the north of Rwanda in Musanze. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes this is the home of the Africa Rising Cycling Centre (ARCC), the training center of the Rwandan national cycling team. We were welcomed by Abed, the cycling team’s therapist and David Louvet, their coach. After a very tasty lunch we went to the Diane Fossey Gorilla Fund Museum to learn more about our hairy friends and visited the Inshuti arts center, owned by artist Karonje, a friend of Peter.
The next morning the team started to treat the cyclists and some members of the administrative team. Aside from the treatments the Osteopaths started teaching massage techniques to the cyclists Josiane, Beatha and Alice.
On Wednesday Heidi stayed at the ARCC to teach these students more about massage therapy while the others explored the area of Lake Kivu and the border to the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the late afternoon the team went back to Kigali.
The next day the Osteopaths treated at Peter’s clinic. Most patients were referred to us but some were returning patients from the previous week. In the evening the team traveled to Bugesera Lodge to be welcomed by the Franco-Rwandan couple Jocelyne Mulera and her husband Jean Christophe.
On Friday, they treated their friends and family. The family is very well connected so the team had the pleasure to meet Mechack Rwampungu the captain of the Rwandan wheelchair basketball national team. They also met up with Jean Luc Galabert, psychologist, anthropologist, ethnologist and author, with whom they had an interesting, prolonged conversation about artemisia. He described his work and products and even wrote a whole book about this great plant! So a visit to his own garden was essential! After that the team went back to Kigali to connect again with Steffi and Chantal for dinner and to explore the nightlife of Kigali.
Saturday was Umuganda – which means “coming together in common purpose” in Kinyarwanda.
The community service day takes place every last Saturday of the month, from 8 to 11am. A day where the cars and motorcycles are quiet and the people clean the streets, plant trees and take care of parks.
Then it was already time for the last mango juice with the whole team, as Heidi had to take her flight back home. One last picture of the great team and we had to say goodbye.
With a whole bunch of sports jerseys, which were sponsored by the EMTV from Germany, school supplies and some sweets we visited a playground in Peter’s home district. Here the children can come together to play football, basketball, to train karate or to read. At the end every child got something and each one shared their smile with us.
In the evening the osteopaths were invited to a family celebration in honor of Peter’s youngest child health.
On Sunday, the last day of this mission, last-minute and even four-hand-treatments were done.
Then it was time to go to the airport. Accompanied by Jean Damascene, Nelly, Alphonse and Peter we didn’t say goodbye – we said see you soon.
Thank you Sylvie, Faisal, Peter, Alphonse, Jean Damascene, Robin for making it possible and all your hard work before and during the mission.
A huge thank you to Peter and Alphonse who took us under their wing around the clock every single day, driving us everywhere, dealing with every aspect of logistics and also the last-minute changes! Thank you to Jean Damascene who was constantly touching base to make sure we were okay and deal with any administrative issue we could have.