Association of Medical Doctors of ASIA, founded in 1984, Consultative Status with UN ECOSOC since 1995

Under the subsidy of Okayama Prefecture, AMDA collaborated with a NPO based in Fukushima prefecture ‘Think about Education in Rwanda’ and assisted two month training for Dr. Calliope Simba Akintije, the director of MIBILIZI Hospital in Rwanda. He started his training on 18th August to learn about maternal and child healthcare and school medical checkup in Okayama, Tokyo and Fukushima.

The relationship between Ms. Marie Louise, the chairperson of the NPO ‘Think about Education in Rwanda’ and AMDA began in 1994 when AMDA dispatched multinational medical mission to Zaire for emergency relief after the genocide occurred. Incidentally, she became to help AMDA’s activity in the camp as an interpreter. After the event, she moved to Fukushima and established the NPO. AMDA concluded MOU with them in 2013.    

The project originally started in UMUCO MWIZA which is a school established by Ms. Marie Louise in Rwanda. They initiated school medical checkup with Dr. Calliope as a pilot case in this April.

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Dr. Calliope accomplished a series of visits to hospitals, clinics, local governments and elementary schools in Okayama, Tokyo and Fukushima. Having watched how medical checkups are done and been explained how the board of education, a school and a school doctor cooperate and share information regarding child healthcare, he told us he learned a lot through the visits that early detections of disease or disorder of children were essential for their future. Also, he stated that he would like to tell concerned parties in Rwanda about how important it is to make and implement policy concentrating on child health.

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One more thing he seemed impressed by was hardworking spirit and kindness of Japanese people. He saw many energetic elderly people volunteering and got deeply touched by them. He mentioned he wanted Rwandan to have volunteering spirit one day like people he met in Japan have.