3rd April 2020
Today I’m sure I’m staying. I have an early morning Zoom call to discuss the toolkit and tasks that we need to complete It’s a busy morning but in the back of my mind I’m aware that tomorrow may be my last chance to leave. Katie calls and says that there are no seats left on the flight, but they are able to get a military plane to Belgium and then the Euro tunnel home. I’m thinking that this would not be ideal. Hannah has decided to go to. It seems their rationales to leave are to be in a familiar country with better healthcare, my rationale to stay is that travelling is risky, defeats the object of self isolating, and that prevention is better than cure.
I get a message from the UK VSO office, they think that everyone is leaving, I tell them that myself and another woman who lives far out of Kigali are staying. I feel insecure that they don’t know this, but they check in with the Rwanda office and come back to say they are there to support. I have to accept I feel wobbly, and feel grateful it’s the first wobble I’ve had since I’ve been here. I chat online to the consultant from the UK who has lived here for seven years and lives just around the corner. I’m grateful that she is there and that when this is over we will be able to meet up.
On one of my daily walks around the compound I chat to my landlady. She’s concerned about her daughter in the US and the amount of deaths. I tell her that I’m wobbly. We ask each other if we’re scared, and she says she’ll pray while I cross my fingers. I tell her I’m thinking of praying and we laugh, and I say at least we have each other.
The Bank of Kigali has announced support to it's customers and that they will be donating Rwf282,000,000, which is roughly £240,000, for vulnerable families affected by C-19. Inyange, a leading food processing company in Rwanda, has donated 25,000 packs of milk and juice. The country's solidarity fund that was developed to "make the country increasingly independent of foreign aid and give Rwandans back their dignity" is suspending payments from citizens, and The Ministry of Finance are working out details on affordable financing for the private sector once the lockdown ends, to support businesses to resume operating.
Rwanda has a total of 89 cases, 5 today. All the new cases were identified as a result of tracing people who came into contact with the C-19 confirmed cases. A local manufacturer has donated 6,000 rapid test kits.
Confirmed cases globally have passed one million, doubling in less than a week.