Who is behind CCHIPS?

Wyman Worldwide Health Partners - Ro and Bill Wyman are the founding partners of Wyman Worldwide Health Partners Fund.

Ro’s seven-year tenure as an Overseer at the Dartmouth Medical School, the Rwandan genocide in 1994, Bill’s management consulting career and current role as a Trustee of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center for the last 10 years, inspired their motivation to find a way to help the people of Rwanda. The result was Wyman Worldwide Health Partners (WWHPS), founded in 2006 to bring some of their abundance in knowledge, skills and resources to the people of Rwanda.

The founding of this organization was a culmination of Ro’s long-time interest in Rwanda, stemming from her first trip to the country in 1988 and her six-year tenure as a Trustee of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (DFGFI), a conservation organization dedicated primarily to the protection of mountain gorillas and their habitat in Rwanda. Early on, she realized that when people are struggling just to survive, it's hard to convince them to protect their environment. The survival of Rwanda’s mountain gorilla population depends upon the health, education and economic success of the people in the communities surrounding the gorillas’ natural habitat. Ro was inspired to try to find a way to make a difference.

Several years’ exploration of ideas and opportunities led to the development of a grassroots community health care delivery strategy aptly named Comprehensive Community Health Initiatives and Programs (CCHIPS), and establishment of a pilot project in the remote rural village of Bisate, in the Northern Province of Rwanda. Bisate Health Centre serves a population of 20,000 and lacks all the basics of life that we take so much for granted, here in the United States: clean water, sanitation and power, which are imperative for the delivery of effective and sustainable primary health care. The project was launched in September 2006.

Wyman Worldwide Health Partners is thrilled for the opportunity to partner with the Rwandan Ministry of Health in its commitment to the long-term development and implementation of its health sector strategic plan. We applaud the government’s willingness to explore and promote innovative ideas of primary health care delivery to remote rural areas.

Laura Clauson - I grew up in Hanover, New Hampshire, the eldest of six children. After graduating from McGill University in 1995, I traveled extensively in South East Asia and later in the Middle East.

I initially became involved in Rwandan affairs while interviewing refugees for Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA), a legal aid clinic in Cairo, Egypt. I became the executive producer of A Mother's Love with the wish that the story of Ros Carr's efforts to bring hope to Rwanda would inspire others to do likewise.

Currently living in Northern Rwanda, I work as the Director for Comprehensive Community Health Initiatives & Programs (CCHIPS), a program of Wyman Worldwide Health Partners, which was initially politically sponsored by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. CCHIPS is bringing improved health care to rural Rwanda through a cost-effective, three-pronged approach – Infrastructure and equipment upgrades; Training and capacity building; Community participation.

Sean Clauson - I grew up in Hanover, NH, the third of six children. In 2002, I graduated from NYU's School of Film & Television and have been living and working as a filmmaker in New York City ever since. I work on everything from feature films and TV commercials to music videos and documentaries, and my specialties include Producing & Location Sound, though I also enjoy Cinematography and Editing. After finishing High school, I took a year off to backpack across Asia with my elder sister, Laura, and through this experience, fell in love with exploring foreign lands & cultures. After spending the summer of 2006 traveling throughout America on an advertising campaign for McDonald's, I began craving more meaningful, rewarding and important work, so when Laura asked me to join her for this Bisate Health Clinic Project, I immediately agreed, and have been filming in Rwanda since November 2006.

Elie Sebigoli (48 yrs) is the CCHIPS Translator and Program Manager. His family moved to Bisate to farm pyrethrum when he was eight. After finishing high school, Elie became a teacher at Bisate Primary School, where he met his future wife, Angel. In 1998, Elie began working for the Mountain Gorilla Project as an Environmental Education Officer, and he left Rwanda in 1990 to study Conservation Education in England and Cameroon. When Elie returned to Rwanda in 1993, the Rwandan Office of Tourism and Park Conservation (ORTPN) hired him as an Assistant Chief Warden of Community Conservation in Virunga National Park.

During the Genocide, Elie fled with his wife and children to safety in Congo, where he worked for CARE Deutschland as a hospital translator. In October 1996, Elie returned to Rwanda and took a job as a Program Manager for The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund-Europe. In 1999, Elie returned to work for ORTPN as Assistant Chief Warden in charge of protection at Akagera National Park, and also worked for the Akagera Game Lodge as a Head Ranger.

Elie has enjoyed his career because he has been able to pursue his life long desire of working on environmental and health issues, while meeting and sharing ideas and experiences with people from around the world.
Elie and Angel have been married for 23 years, and his parents, Laban (75) and Rahab (75), are still cultivating potatoes in Bisate. Elie has 5 children: Eliana (22), Elifaz (20), Egide (13), Elize (11) and Devine (4), and has recently become a grandfather.
Elie is pursuing a degree in Rural Development, and travels to Goma, DRC on weekends to attend University. He is planning to build a house for his family using a new low cost design, and he dreams that his children will follow his footsteps, by finding rewarding employment that opens their minds to the world.

Gabby Tuyisenge (24 yrs-old) is the CCHIPS house manager and cook. Gabby grew up in the southern Rwanda town of Bugesera. He remembers nothing of the Genocide. After leaving school at 14, Gabby moved to Kigali where he worked as an electrician’s assistant and as house help, while saving enough money to buy a bicycle which he began renting out for 90 cents a day. In 2004, Gabby took a job as a cook with Rwandans & Americans in Partnership (RAP). RAP hosted many American exchange students and Gabby soon began learning English.

CCHIPS was fortunate that Gabby agreed to move to the northern town of Ruhengeri, where today he cooks wonderful meals for the CCHIPS Staff & Volunteers. Gabby learns new recipes with rapidity and makes the tastiest pizza in all of Central Africa.

Gabby recently started a motorcycle taxi business, and hopes to save enough money to build a house and buy a cow and a car. His mother and two younger sisters still live in Bugesera, and Gabby has recently become an uncle.

Alice Nyiransengimana (30 yrs-old) is the CCHIPS housekeeper. The eldest of seven children, Alice grew up southwest of Kigali in the town of Gitarama. The Genocide began during her second year of high school and her father was killed. After the Genocide, Alice attempted to return to school but never finished. Instead, she began trading small items like sugar, cooking oil and house supplies, and worked for a short time as a supervisor at a coffee and vegetable plantation, in order to put her younger siblings through school. In 2004, she married a man from Ruhengeri and moved north to live with him. She had two children, Kevin (4 yrs) and Cedric (1 yr). Her husband abandoned the family, and two of Alice’s sisters moved in with her.

In 2007, Alice opened a small restaurant called The Sun Café, which helps supplement her income as CCHIPS housekeeper. She sells Fanta, milk, boiled eggs and the largest muffins in all of Africa. Alice provided delectable catering for the 2007 CCHIPS’ Clinic Christmas Party.

Alice hopes to continue earning enough money to provide a stable life for her family and to send her children through school. She dreams of having a house and a cow, and of completing her final year of high school. The District is planning to start night schools next year for people like Alice, and she hopes to attend.