[afro-nets] Rwanda Quality of Life Centre

[Alex Hakuzimana <claulex20@yahoo.co.uk>]

Rwanda Quality of Life Centre
-----------------------------

I am a young doctor and investigator in quality of life and
health-related quality of life and based in Rwanda. I would like
to present you in brief terms our organisation "RWANDA QUALITY
OF LIFE CENTRE"

WHAT ABOUT IT?

Rwanda Quality of Life Centre, a very young organization in the
country and the region, was born on April 1, 2004. The idea came
from Alex Hakuzimana. He begged his colleagues' support and
these did not hesitate to reinforce his project. With no delay,
the young doctors, most of them if not all being of the same
class within the National University of Rwanda Faculty of Medi-
cine got at once into act. Being aware of the trend society is
facing with regard to their health care in particular and their
development in general, the class, with their well known his-
torical devotion and convinced will, decided to create the or-
ganization. Working in network with organizations, institutions,
and individuals specialized in health-related quality of life
field, Rwanda Quality of Life Centre has the key goal of promot-
ing health and quality of life in the region.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to promote quality of life of Rwandans and their
neighbours in general and of chronically ill people in particu-
lar by disseminating information about quality of life through-
out the country, the region, the continent and over the world
and enhancing quality of life research.

OBJECTIVES

The goal of the Centre is to serve society and its members
by:
A. Increasing awareness of and helping provide solutions to
safety and health hazards within the Rwandan society through co-
operation with various other quality of life associations.

B. Promoting research on QOL by encouraging especially young in-
vestigators to get actively involved in the matter.

C. Translating QOL instruments from foreign languages into local
languages.

D. Promoting and facilitating professional and scientific ex-
changes as well as projects and extracurricular trainings for
its members and healthcare professionals, thereby sensitizing
them to the importance of the quality of life in the development
of the society.

E. Providing a link between members, quality of life associa-
tions and international organizations, and to encourage the co-
operation between them for the ultimate benefit of society.

NATURE

The centre is an independent and not for profit organization
of volunteers willing to help society promote their quality
of life.

PRINCIPLES

The Centre:
I. pursues its aims without political, religious, social,
racial, national, sexual or any other discrimination;

II. promotes humanitarian ideals among its members;

III. respects the autonomy of its members.


NB: Some of our activities can be found on our website
www.mangosee.com/mangosteen/rwqol/rwqolhome.htm

You will find that we are interested first in HIV infection. We
did not ignore other diseases, but we are drafting protocols for
other chronic diseases although funding difficulty remains a
crucial hindrance for the success of our ambition.

So do not hesitate to contact us for more information and your
feedback is welcome. Moreover, as obvious, no scientific work
can succeed without network, collaboration, communication and
partnership. So, I would like to tell to anyone who will feel
interested in our activities to contact via the e-mail
mailto:claulex@yahoo.co.uk or mailto:alexhak75@gmail.com or our
European contact mailto:england@mangosee.com.

We would like to promote quality of life research in Africa and
need any support of its nature. And international organisations
experienced in the domain and let us mention the International
Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL), the International
Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR),
MAPI Values, and International Society for Quality of Life Stud-
ies (ISQOLS) have been encouraging such project. So I invite you
all interested and enthusiastic to join the Rwandan team.

Kind regards,

Alex Hakuzimana
Rwanda QOL Centre, President and Co-founder
P O Box 6471
City of Kigali, Rwanda
Tel: +250-08570008
mailto:claulex20@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.mangosee.com/mangosteen/rwqol/rwqolhome.htm