“Voluntourism” and Helping Babies Breathe®: Capacity Building in Rwanda

Sustainability is considered by many to be the “Holy Grail” of international medical missions; however capacity building is fast becoming the new goal of these projects as more are focusing on the development and strengthening of human and institutional resources. After a chance meeting in Rwanda in 2008, a nurse from the University of Kansas Hospital and the Executive Director of Global Engagement Institute teamed up to bring neonatal projects to the country of Rwanda in east central Africa. Three years later, the discovery of a program called Helping Babies Breathe® (HBB), led them on a path to capacity building by working with the Rwandan Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Kigali Health Institute (KHI) to incorporate the HBB program into curriculum in the nursing and midwifery programs at KHI.