Before 2007, people living in the rural Burera district of northern Rwanda had little access to a health-care facility or doctors. Then the nonprofit Partners in Health and the Rwandan Ministry of Health began creating a health-care network in the region, including the 150-bed Butaro Hospital, designed by Boston-based MASS Design Group. The hospital opened in January 2011 and quickly made an impact on the health of the nearly 350,000 people in the area.
Despite the success, the hospital has grappled with a pivotal challenge. How to attract and retain Rwanda’s brightest medical professionals, as well as doctors from other countries? A response to that challenge opened this past November: the first phase of permanent doctors’ housing, built by MASS about a five-minute walk from the hospital.
Further Viewing: Butaro Hospital
