Rwanda is one of the smallest countries on the African continent, and the most densely populated one. There are around 463 inhabitants per 1km2 here! Due to its natural landscape, Rwanda is sometimes referred to as a land of a thousand hills, and due to its history, also a land of a thousand problems.
18.08.2023
“We were frightened when she fell over. But the really chilling thing was the silence when, instead of crying, she didn’t get up. You could feel that the whole world was holding its breath.
We only keep in touch with Melat’s dad via WhatsApp, as he has never stopped looking to the farthest corners of the world to save his little girl. He firmly believes that somewhere there is a new therapy that will help his daughter to return to good health.
One afternoon while playing, Melat tripped and hit her head on the floor. A few tens of minutes later she was in the intensive care unit, but fell into a coma. And once she awoke from it, huge neurological changes came to light. Melat’s parents were frantic with despair, even turning to a clinic in India for help. The response knocked them off their feet – no one knew how to help.
Melat’s parents refused to entrust their daughter to hospice care until the end. It was like admitting that they had run out of options to save her. Hospices are used to be considered as dying places and palliative care as a form of treatment that is actually surrender, but as we managed to convince them, nothing could be further from the truth. Here, the most important thing is life!
We give Melat medication and carry out regular rehabilitation. The effects are visible – Melat has started to react. She makes sounds, cries, laughs. She reacts to the voice of her favourite carer, who treats her like her own daughter.
Every reaction is a huge success.
Looking into Melat’s eyes, we see – she literally fights for every grimace and gesture. The doctors’ diagnoses are against her, theoretically irreversible changes, but she nevertheless snatches another moment of normality from life every day. And we firmly believe that she will not stop there.
Melat has been with us for three years; she is one of our youngest patients. Please support her in this fight by giving her the best present for now on her 9th birthday – a day of stay and rehabilitation in the hospice. We are sure that the day will come when, thanks to your support, Melat will be able to say: Thank you.
13.06.2024
Before coming to Kabuga, she went through a lot. She didn’t have the conditions to be sick, but the illness didn’t take that into account. Abandoned, lonely, and neglected, she experienced the cruelty of poverty and lack of independence. When she arrived in Kabuga, it was as if her life began again. The patients come […]
25.04.2024
“My dad died because he knew they would catch up with him anyway. He didn’t want to run. He didn’t have the strength for it. He preferred to end it where everything began.” Thirty years have passed since the Rwandan genocide. M. still loves dogs deeply, though dogs are rarely considered friends in Rwanda. She […]
24.04.2024
Hospice care is not about facing the end but about healing and guiding people back onto a path they can continue to follow. Take Teresa’s story, for instance—her experience at our Kabuga facility feels like winning a second chance at life. Having nearly reached her end following a severe stroke, she believes that without the […]
