{"id":477,"date":"2011-07-13T10:44:08","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T10:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/us-volunteers-aim-to-improve-rural-health\/"},"modified":"2011-07-13T11:02:52","modified_gmt":"2011-07-13T11:02:52","slug":"us-volunteers-aim-to-improve-rural-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/us-volunteers-aim-to-improve-rural-health\/","title":{"rendered":"US volunteers aim to improve rural health"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{{A team of 17 US  public health professionals  under Peace Corps volunteer program have been sworn in for a two year mandate aimed at  improving  health standards in the rural.<br \/>\n}}<\/p>\n<p>The health minister Dr.Agnes Binagwaho applauded the volunteers\u2019 courage to work in the country adding that they ought to learn a lot from the history, especially on how Rwandans have gained courage to progress after the war and Genocide.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s nothing impossible with hope and nothing is impossible with solidarity,\u201d she under scored.<\/p>\n<p>A new country agreement was signed with the government on July 18, 2008. The first new group of thirty-five Public Health trainees arrived in January 2009. They were assigned to the Ministry of Health and the National AIDS Committee to health centers throughout the country.<\/p>\n<p>After the swearing in ceremony the volunteers will depart for rural health clinics and health organizations across the country.<\/p>\n<p> The volunteers have spent two months learning Kinyarwanda and the culture in order to interact well with the community. Jacob Deering, who\u2019s among the volunteers says that he has been  assigned to Nyaruguru district in the South province where will assist in public  health education.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe only way to understand the needs of the community is by interacting with them and be part of the society,\u201d he remarked adding that: \u201cNishimiye kuza mu Rwanda guteza imbere ubuzima (I\u2019m proud to be here and I expect to promote health standards),\u201d he said out.<\/p>\n<p>He said  he has  been  assigned to Nyaruguru district in the South province where will assist in public  health education.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will conduct trainings that will be highly based on nutrition, hygiene, HIV\/AIDS prevention amongst others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mary Abrams the director of Peace Corps in Rwanda noted that several initiatives undertaken by the volunteers have shown progress.She cited education being the most successful with eighty volunteers in various secondary schools where there\u2019re assisting in the nine year free basic education program.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019re a total of 128 volunteers working in education and health sectors in the country. They join volunteers already serving in health organazations or as math, science and English teachers in secondary schools who have arrived in 4 groups since 2009.<\/p>\n<p>The Peace Corps volunteer initiative was started by past US president John. F. Kennedy fifty years ago. In Rwanda, the Peace Corps signed an agreement with the Rwandan government in 1974 and the first group of Volunteers arrived in 1975. The agency withdrew volunteers in 1993 due to the civil war and the program closed in 1994.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{{A team of 17 US public health professionals under Peace Corps volunteer program have been sworn in for a two year mandate aimed at improving health standards in the rural. }} The health minister Dr.Agnes Binagwaho applauded the volunteers\u2019 courage to work in the country adding that they ought to learn a lot from the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"byline":[158],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","byline-b_igi_adm1n"],"bylines":[{"id":158,"name":"b_igi_adm1n","slug":"b_igi_adm1n","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":1}],"contributors":[{"id":158,"name":"b_igi_adm1n","slug":"b_igi_adm1n","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":1}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=477"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}