KIBUYE HOPE HOSPITAL 

Kibuye Hope Hospital serves about a tenth of the country as the ‘hospital of reference’, meaning that fourteen rural clinics, serving about 250,000 people, send patients on to Kibuye for specialized and intensive care. Kibuye provides these patents with treatments from cesarean sections and hernia surgery to x-rays and eye exams. A staff of local and expatriate doctors (as well as missionary medical specialists, six of whom have become permanent residents) provide high quality care. This is a multi-part ministry, focused on whole person care and education.

The Frank Ogden School of Medicine, Hope Africa University’s medical program, is one key part of the ministry at Kibuye. Students serve in Kibuye and at an inner city clinic, getting vital experience both in medical practice and in Christian ministry as a doctor. These students go on to be the medical professionals that Burundi needs so badly, and their experience will come from a hospital steeped in a commitment to whole person care.

Kibuye’s whole person focused ministry includes nutrition for children and new mothers, affordable care, and a focus on spiritual, as well as physical, well being. The BUSOMA ministry provides the children that come for pediatric care and the new mothers that come to the maternity ward with nutritious cereal, helping to break the cycle of childhood malnourishment and death. Funding from the government for the maternity programs, grants, and private donations means that the care at Kibuye can be substantially cheaper than at other hospitals in Burundi. A nearby church, pastor and chaplain visits to the hospital, and the ministry focus of the staff ensure that people receive spiritual care along with physical care.

Kibuye’s capacity for physical care is high quality, but only a small number of people can be served at once. Currently Kibuye has only one hundred and nine beds, and the hospital is constantly crowded with patents and the nearby hill covered with camping families. The hospital plans to expand to three hundred beds, as well as building a dental building, an optometry building, office space, dormitories, and a kitchen and canteen for the families that come in support of their loved ones. This development will be coupled with more important, life saving equipment, increasing the quality of patient care.

As Burundi struggles to heal and become a unified nation, Kibuye Hope Hospital heals patients both physically and spiritually. Christ’s love is shared in both word and deed through the medical care, prayer, education, and food, as KHH works to meet the needs of Burundi.