Ellen Carmichael is traveling in Rwanda and the DRC on a CARE Learning Tour, a comprehensive, multi-day tour for policymakers and those who can influence policy to gain firsthand knowledge of the core issues poor communities face. She is a field coordinator with CARE USA’s Policy and Advocacy Unit. To learn more about the Learning Tours Program, please visit: www.care.org/learningtour.

(Michael Gerson, Washington Post columnist, visits PIH hospital in rural Rwanda)

Michael Gerson, Washington Post columnist pictured above*, and CARE's Learning Tour delegation traveled to the rural village of Butaro - in the Burera District in northern Rwanda - on the final day of the Learning Tour. In early 2008, Partners in Health (PIH), an international NGO co-founded by Paul Farmer, partnered with the Rwandan government to improve access to health care in the district – the only district in the country without a functioning district hospital.

In January of this year, the PIH Butaro Hospital opened its doors. The hospital itself is a testament to PIH vision – the hospital was built with local labor, using local materials and with a vision of achieving a modern hospital in rural Africa with an academic environment capable of delivering world-class medical care. PIH also focuses on training of health care workers at all levels of care – including community health workers and health center staff. PIH’s intervention in the Burera district sets an example of what can be done in Rwanda – and elsewhere in east Africa – to promote a health system that is integrated at every level.

Ellen Carmichael is traveling in Rwanda and the DRC on a CARE Learning Tour, a comprehensive, multi-day tour for policymakers and those who can influence policy to gain firsthand knowledge of the core issues poor communities face. She is a field coordinator with CARE USA’s Policy and Advocacy Unit. To learn more about the Learning Tours Program, please visit: www.care.org/learningtour.

Congressman Jim McDermott (WA-7), pictured above, on CARE’s Learning Tour to the Democratic Republic of Congo visited HEAL Africa’s Safe Motherhood hospital and support group. Through providing prenatal care and micro-insurance programs, women receive health support while receiving small grants to manage childbirth costs. Funded by UNICEF, HEAL Africa’s Women’s Solidarity Groups include over six thousand members across Eastern Congo and provide training in family planning and small business management. Nearly eight hundred Solidarity Group Leaders have been trained on managing income-generating activities to help provide additional business opportunities for both the women within the group and the greater community. Congressman McDermott and the Learning Tour met with Meme Mere (We’re all Mothers) – a solidarity group comprised of 85 members – and spoke with women who received training, and are now teaching other women about reproductive health and loan management.

Congressman Donald Payne (NJ-10) on CARE’s Learning Tour in Rwanda today passed people who yelled “Komera Komera,” a greeting meaning “be strong/be healthy” on his way to Kamonyi Village to visit these children, pictured. They are part of an innovative program which seeks to integrate child survival interventions - including good nutrition, diarrhea, and pneumonia treatment - with mother support groups. The program focuses on 105 villages and serves a population of 88,307. Each day a different mother takes a turn as the “caregiver,” staying with the children while the other mothers work in the fields or the market.