ANTIGONISH: Some local helpers need your assistance.
A volunteer organization out of Antigonish called A Partnership in Caring Society (APICS) is looking to bring aid to Rwanda next February as part of the group’s annual aid visit. Established in 2010, the partnership has been bringing volunteers, food and medicine as well as equipment and programming for education and healthcare. They also provided funding to train 75 nurses in newborn resuscitation.
APICS chair and nurse Maria van Vonderen said the group’s earliest iteration began with StFX nursing professor Elsa Jensen taking fourth-year nursing students to Rwanda for clinical placement. While there, van Vonderen said, Rwandan health workers expressed a need for professionals to come and train them in areas such as wound care, palliative care, mental health, and child care.
“When Elsa came back, she put the word out,” said van Vonderen. “There was a group of us at the hospital who responded to that.”
The response turned into around eight people from St. Martha’s Regional Hospital going over in 2011, spending four weeks living, working, and training. They partnered with the Butare University teaching hospital and indentified several needs such as wound care and basic food acquisition.
From the hospital, APICS extended out to the surrounding community and helped with local schools and health centres, and partnered with the Wishing Well Society, getting 12 cisterns installed. APICS also works with ADAR orphanage, which houses 30 people who live with disabilities.
“When we’re there, we bring some supplies from here,” van Vonderen said.
“Whatever we can get our hands on, we’re bringing it to support folks there. The other thing we do is a lot of fundraising.”
To aid in fundraising, APICS partners with a women’s cooperative in Rwanda, brings products from Rwanda back here and sells them to buy more supplies to bring back to Rwanda. APICS’s goal is raising $10,000 a year for Rwandan projects.
“We’ve done songwriters circles, we’ve sold tickets on a quilt, sold crafts, and we rely on donations,” she said. “We’re always trying to find ways to raise money.”
While there are around 13 million people in Rwanda, it is only about the size of Cape Breton, said van Vonderen. She described it as a lovely and safe country and is looking forward to returning in February.
“We are heavily in planning for our trip,” she said. “We’re going to be going for a month. We have to start planning now because we need to start thinking about who is going, what supplies do we need, we have to get our visas, we have to get our vaccinations. We’re really busy.”
APICS is also looking to become recognized as a charitable organization by Revenue Canada, which they hope to have completed by the end of the year.
Those looking to contribute or learn more about the project can visit apartnershipincaring.ca.