[afro-nets] Rwanda Quality of Life Centre

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

You will not get surprised for I am familiar with our e-group.
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 launched on April 1, 2004. The idea came from Dr 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 Medicine 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 historical devotion and convinced will, decided to create the organization.

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 promoting health and quality of life in the region.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to promote quality of life of Rwandans and their neighbors in general and of chronically ill people in particular by disseminating information about quality of life throughout 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 cooperation with various other quality of life associations. 
B.    Promoting research on QOL by encouraging especially young investigators to get actively involved in the matter;
C.    Translating QOL instruments from foreign languages into local languages ;
D.    Promoting and facilitating professional and scientific exchanges as well as projects and extracurricular 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 associations and international organizations, and to encourage the cooperation 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 http://www.mangosee.com/mangosteen/rwqol/rwqolhome.htm.
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 Dr Alex Hakuzimana, via emails  claulex20@yahoo.co.uk or alexhak75@gmail.com or our European contact Anthony England, PhD, via the england@mangosee.com.

We would like to promote health-related quality of life and patient-reported outcomes 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 Studies (ISQOLS) have been encouraging such project.

So I invite you all interested and enthusiastic to join the Rwandan team.

Kind regards.
  
On behalf of Rwanda Quality of Life Centre
Dr Alex Hakuzimana
MSc Student in Human Resources Management
Swiss Management Center
Zug, Switzerland
Phone: +250 08570008 (Rwanda)
mailto:claulex20@yahoo.co.uk