Village Health Works: Grassroots Care in Rural Burundi
Thumbnail image: The view as you walk up to the WHP facility
Village Health Works (VHW) is a 501(c)(3) global health organization operating in rural Burundi, where access to healthcare is extremely limited. VHW’s mission is to provide quality, compassionate, and dignified healthcare and education. In collaboration with those we serve, we develop grassroots and long-term solutions to address illness, poverty, violence, and neglect.
Pediatric patients in the VHW clinic
VHW’s founder and internationally recognized humanitarian leader, Deogratias Niyizonkiza, now an American citizen, was born and raised in the VHW catchment area; 98% of our staff is Burundian. In December of 2007, VHW opened a health center to try and address the overwhelming need for medical care in the area; today, the clinic is open 24 hours a day and in 2020 performed nearly 50,000 consultations in a service area of around 200,000 people. To create impactful and sustainable change, VHW utilizes a holistic model which recognizes the interconnectedness of problems and solutions. This means focusing not just on healthcare, but on education, food security, economic prosperity, and community engagement. Today, in addition to providing dignified medical treatment, VHW trains teachers and feeds students, supports farming and livestock co-ops, and sustains community cooperatives programs that help create economic opportunities and provide the tools necessary to lift participants out of extreme poverty.
An aerial view of the WHP Facility
While our health center has made a dramatic impact in thousands of lives, we are still struggling to meet the needs of our community. Our current inability to perform surgeries means too many of our patients do not survive things as routine as childbirth. To ensure these very treatable conditions do not result in death, we are building the Kigutu Hospital and Women’s Health Pavilion (WHP), a 150-bed teaching hospital to provide essential emergency obstetrics and surgical care, with a focus on maternal and child health. Once complete, the WHP will not only triple our clinical capacity but also transform the course of health care in Burundi and beyond. Resources are scarce, with one physician per 20,865 people and one midwife per 45,723. people. As a result, the maternal mortality ratio is 548 per 100,000 live births, more than twice as high as neighboring Rwanda (248), and substantially higher than peer East African nations such as Kenya (342), Uganda (375), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (473). Every one of those deaths is fundamentally life-changing for a family that is likely already facing great hardship.
WHP Physicians, ready to go with PPE!
We anticipate that construction of the WHP will be completed by June 1, 2022. When it is fully operational,the WHP will feature four general operating theaters, a maternity wing that includes private delivery rooms, neonatal and adult intensive care units, as well as general pediatric, adult, and emergency wards. We will have the capacity to deliver over 2,000 babies annually, provide inpatient medical and surgical care for over 10,000 additional patients, and anchor community outreach beyond the current 200,000-person service area.
Furthermore, the WHP will provide a foundation for the next generation of Burundian health professionals through the education of medical students and establishment of graduate medical education (specialist or residency) training programs. If you are interested in being a part of this audacious project, please check out the current job openings. We are currently recruiting for a variety of positions that will be essential to the success of this hospital.
