January 2021
Interview with Sister Marie-Louise, leader of the community, about the Covid-19 situation in Rwanda.
How is the Covid situation in your country?
As you know, this pandemic of Covid 19 has a lot of consequences and it affects many lives. All institutions, public and private, have been affected economically, spiritually and morally.
What does the Rwandan government in this situation?
The government of Rwanda, together with civil society, private sector and churches, are doing their best in raising awareness of population with regard to their responsibility in reducing the number of infected people of Covid-19 and its spreading.
The government of Rwanda is doing its best to take care of infected people by providing the necessary materials and medicines. Nowadays, the material for testing Covid-19 are available in all public hospitals and Health Centres, including some private clinics. All health workers are trained to care for infected people. And regular and ongoing health campaigns are conducted to sensitize the population at grassroots level.
What does your community of sisters in this time?
The intervention of community of deaconesses’ sisters (Abaja ba Kristo) is made through three core points:
First, in our capacity, in collaboration with Presbyterian Church in Rwanda (EPR), we are doing our best to raise awareness of population in fighting against Covid-19.
Second, we also provide the support of food and hygienic items to the vulnerable people in case of emergency. This is to help the needy to survive during this crisis and help them to meet their basic needs.
In addition, the third point is related to job creation. We provide job opportunities to people through different projects ran by our institution. In the future, we expect to be more creative and to initiate various projects to help such people with low income or unemployed affected by Covid-19 especially.