Chinese medical team donates medical supplies to local hospital in Rwanda

Chinese Ambassador to Rwanda Wang Xuekun (L, front) talks with Jean Damascene Hanyurwimfura, director general of Masaka Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda, Jan. 30, 2024. A Chinese medical team on Tuesday donated a consignment of medical supplies to Masaka Hospital in Kicukiro District in the Rwandan capital of Kigali. (Photo by Huang Wanqing/Xinhua)

KIGALI, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese medical team on Tuesday donated a consignment of medical supplies to Masaka Hospital in Kicukiro District in the Rwandan capital of Kigali.

The supplies included hand sanitizers, surgical lights, operating stools, a high-frequency electric knife, disposable oral appliance packs, and disposable sterile surgical scrubs.

Upon receiving the donation at Masaka Hospital, Director General Jean Damascene Hanyurwimfura expressed gratitude to the government of China and the Chinese Embassy in Rwanda for supporting the hospital.

"Now, we have 15 medical workers from China who will be here for the whole year," he said, adding that the supplies "will facilitate their daily tasks and contribute to improving community outcomes."

The supplies, especially surgical lights and others, will play a crucial role in the hospital's surgical operations, Hanyurwimfura said.

"Last year, the medical team provided us with operating room beds, which addressed a previous lack of medical supplies and improved our surgical operations," he said. "The Hernia Week campaign, during which doctors operated on patients, was made possible because we had the necessary medical supplies for surgical operations."

China started to dispatch medical teams to Rwanda in 1982, and there have been hundreds of medical staff working in Rwanda since then.