Rwanda is one of the smallest countries on the African continent and also the most densely populated. There are about 525 inhabitants per square kilometre! Because of its natural landscape, Rwanda is known as the “land of a thousand hills”, and because of its history, also the “land of a thousand problems”.
05.06.2023
“She is our mother. She loves us very much. Mum, you know she does, don’t you?”, Teresa says. The woman has suffered a stroke and is paralysed. However, she has no problem throwing herself into Sister Maria’s arms, hugging her and talking as if she were her mother.
Teresa has been in the hospice in Kabuga for two years. She would not be able to function independently. Without round-the-clock care, physiotherapy and the right conditions for her, she would probably be dead by now.
Next to her on the bed lies Virgini. She boasts that she is already 102 years old. Although it is certain that her metric is between 90-100 years, she herself has never known exactly when she was born. At the time, registering newborns was not a common procedure in Rwanda. Documents were sometimes produced years after birth, offering any date of birth. At the hospice, however, no one wants to check Virginia’s documents. Our 100-year-old is happy. That’s all that matters.
As you visit room after room in the hospice, you get the sense that all the patients share the same glint in their eye.
“They come in tired. Often neglected, powerless. You can see that they are suffering and above all you can see the deep, existential sadness in their eyes,” says Sister Maria. “At first they are very closed off an they don’t really know where they are and what is going to happen here, but they soon realise that they are at home here.”
And that is exactly how it is. After a few days, there is more laughter than sadness. The medication, the comfortable conditions, the physiotherapy sessions reduce the pain and the powerlessness. Efficiency returns and the tormented expression disappears.
“The first to appear is the sparkle in the eyes. This is when we know that even if we have to wait for an improvement in fitness, we are already heading in that direction.”
One wants to be among the patients of the hospice in Kabuga. Joy and peace surpass pain and uncertainty here. One does not die here. Here one lives until the very end.
The wonderful team led by Sister Maria can do such wonders with the patients, thanks to you. Right now, you can fund such a gleam in the eye by providing a patient with at least one peaceful, worry-free day at the hospice. The best and only place of its kind in Rwanda.
26.08.2025
An hour’s walk to school. Under a tattered uniform, notebooks that simply dissolve during the rainy season. Disappear. Education is not just learning to read and write. It’s the only lifeline you can grab when fate has been pulling you down since birth. It’s the promise that your story doesn’t have to be the same […]
23.05.2025
On Wednesday, 21 May 2025, a ceremony of special significance took place at the Presidential Palace. On Humanitarian Aid Day, the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, honored people whose lives bear witness to extraordinary dedication to others. Among them was Sister Maria Piątek, director of the only hospice in Rwanda—run by the Polish Sisters of […]
11.02.2025
No one can tell another person what the meaning of life and suffering is. Each of us must find that answer on our own and take responsibility for it. To answer the question asked by Viktor Frankl: “What gives my life meaning?”. In Rwanda or Congo, few have read his bestselling book, yet somehow, every […]
