A British pharmacist who recently visited Rwanda has been asked by a charity working in the country for help with meeting the country's need for medicines.
The charity, Bufmar, has been given new tableting machines and raw materials and has the staff available to produce medicines. However, the machines were provided with no manuals and no-one there knows how operate them.
Dr Jeremy Hyde, MRPharmS, told The Journal on February 21 that someone was needed to spend three to six months in the country to train local personnel in the necessary skills.
Dr Hyde was one of a group of 12 people from his church in Maidenhead, Berkshire, who visited Rwanda last year. He visited a hospital at Kigeme to give them 47kg of medicines and found that the gift was more than the hospital's existing stock. The hospital was expected to provide care for 460,000 people, he said.
Anyone interested can telephone Dr Hyde on 01628 621651 or e-mail him at jeremyrhyde@aol.com.

The outpatient dispensary at Kigeme hospital