New Peds Building

(By Alyssa)

Burundi doesn’t have seasons like those familiar to folks who live farther from the equator, but it does have rainy and dry seasons. In the US and Europe, winter is the busy time in pediatrics as everyone is inside sharing all their cold and flu germs. But we also have dramatic seasonal variation in pediatrics in Burundi with rainy season being both respiratory infection season (like winter in the US) and malaria season. And every year I’ve been here, our patient numbers have increased. We had approximately 40 patients on the peds service each day during rainy season in 2014, 60 patients in 2015, and then last year we broke the hospital record with 89 patients (for 30 beds). That’s when our engineers Tony and Caleb came to the rescue and constructed a temporary ward in just 3 weeks adding 20 beds. But this year we smashed the record again with 117 patients (now in 53 beds)! Once again, thankfully, the engineers are saving the day as they have designed a fabulous new 80 bed pediatric ward to serve our precious patients for many years to come. Watch the below video to learn more about this exciting project - and feel free to share it with your friends!


Kibuye Pediatrics from Seth Chase on Vimeo.

First floor

Second floor

Site of the new peds building

Current overcrowding

Patients and mothers sharing beds

If you would like to participate with us in caring for these sweet children in Burundi, click here to donate through the Kibuye Hope Hospital fund (type "pediatrics" in the memo line). All donations are tax-deductible. Thank you!