WaterAid's new One Health project launches in Rwanda

WaterAid Canada and WaterAid Rwanda are starting up a new One Health project with Veterinarians Without Borders (VWB) Canada, the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) Centre for One Health, and the University of Guelph in Rwanda, along with Rwanda government ministries and the District of Nyamagabe. This is exciting for WaterAid, as one of our first One Health projects that combines human health, environmental health and animal health together.

Last October, the VWB Project Leader, Marc, and I travelled from Canada to join our colleagues Olivier, Christelle, Martha, Alice, Innocent, Jacqueline and Bernard from WA Rwanda along with Dieudonné and Janna from UGHE. Although project planning meetings are not the most exciting events, I did enjoy spending a few days with them in a conference room. It was the first time we got to meet each other, which is always important at the start of a project to establish how we will work together and manage this project over the next 4 years. We also had the opportunity to talk about our families, travel experiences, language education, and the government plans for developing Rwanda’ infrastructure and services industry.

It was my first international trip since before the COVID-19 pandemic started, so I was a bit nervous but also really excited to be travelling to Rwanda for the first time and to meet people we work with in WaterAid and our partner organizations. Kigali surprised me! It’s a VERY clean city; no litter, upgraded roads and infrastructure, new modern buildings in most areas and ambitious plans to become the city of choice for international gatherings in East and Central Africa.

The people were very welcoming and kind and very organized! I had the pleasure of visiting the WA Rwanda office and the WA East Africa Regional Office, meeting more colleagues who work in programming, communications, advocacy, finance, and management at WaterAid.

They made feel at home in their workspace, and for someone who regularly works from home, it was wonderful to be in a collegial office environment for a day! Unfortunately, my visit to Rwanda was quite short, although fruitful and motivating as we start up the project.

January saw the COHERS Project officially launched with national government ministries and stakeholders involved with the project. I’m excited to work with my WA Rwanda colleagues and our partners on this One Health project to show that clean water, good sanitation and waste management systems, and good hygiene practices are important parts of disease control and One Health approaches to prevent future pandemics. We should never forget the basics!

Sara Marshall, Business Development Manager, WaterAid Canada