This is Jeanette and her father. Jeanette lives in Rwanda. Jeanette is 12 years old. Jeanette is not a happy camper: she is ill, seriously ill. Ever since she was five years old, her face and body have been swollen.

Jeanette didn’t have the opportunity to see a specialist. Jeanette did not have a home and her parents were not able to take care of her. Jeanette led a drifter’s life. Very recently her father is able again to care for his daughter, with very limited funds. They came to the nearest hospital in Kabgayi. So we got to know her during our mission in the emergency ward.

On top of that, there are not many specialists in Rwanda, training still isn’t organised and there are no supplies. Would you believe it that in Rwanda, a country as large as Belgium, there are only two cardiac specialists. And for Jeanette and her father, the hospitals where they could see a cardiac specialist, are too far away. We got to know Jeanette on the first day of our mission. Jeanette had been hospitalised a couple of days before because she was really at her wit’s end: she was short of breath, very tired, het whole body very swollen. She had high blood pressure. Her whole body ached.

Together with Dr. Pierre, the Rwandese emergency physician at the hospital of Kabgayi, we have adjusted her medication as well as possible... Much and heavy medication. Dr. Deo did an ultrasound, finding a significantly unsound heart. He was taught this kind of examination by Doctors Without Vacation (Artsen Zonder Vakantie). Jeanette recovered a little bit. And she could already smile a little. But Jeanette's health deteriorated again: she slept more and more. Jeanette needs specialised help: a team of specialists for her serious and very complex illness... Also technological equipment for further examination and treatment.

A team consisting of a paediatrician, a heart specialist and a kidney specialist would be able to help her with a diagnosis and a treatment. But they are not available. There is little hope for Jeanette. In Africa, Doctors Without Vacation trains motivated physicians like Dr. Pierre and Dr. Deo as qualified specialists. So that other girls like Jeanette do get a fair chance, just as every 12 year-old girl in our country.

By Dr. Nele Vangheluwe