Shipping Healthcare Abroad

Global healthcare can be delivered in a number of unique and nontraditional methods, often extending beyond the confined walls of a clinic or hospital building.

Thanks to the Baylor Africa New Life Initiative — a partnership between Baylor’s Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences and Africa New Life Ministries — communities in the Republic of Rwanda will soon be served by shipping container clinics outfitted to provide medical services to vulnerable women, children and families.

Dedicated and shipped in March 2023, the first of 10 planned container clinics arrived in Kigali, Rwanda, in May 2023, part of a concerted effort to address and resolve systemic poverty through research and sustained engagement with the affected communities.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to enter into a partnership with Africa New Life Ministries — a partnership that will connect our faculty and students with service-learning opportunities and new relationships that will foster rich growth in our research enterprise as we work with this respected and dedicated organization,” said Baylor President Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D. “As a Christian institution, we are excited to partner with an organization whose focus and mission has been to amplify the Gospel, while meeting communities’ needs in practical, transformational ways.”

Baylor Build, a student organization dedicated to container clinic construction projects, is currently building the second of these Rwanda-bound clinics on Baylor’s campus with hopes of shipping by the end of 2023.

The Baylor Africa New Life Initiative will focus on two general areas of partnership: conducting applied, interdisciplinary research that promotes human flourishing for communities in Rwanda, and creating transformational experiences for Baylor students, faculty and others that develop character and contribute to spiritual formation.

While still in the early stages of building research and programmatic elements on the ground in Rwanda, clinics will be used to assess and track child wellbeing and health education, with opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and research, including doctoral research projects and student study abroad internships and practicums.

Once online, the clinics are designed to be used for primary healthcare and health education. Each clinic will be certified by the Rwandan government as health posts.

Africa New Life Ministries focuses on four areas of action: educational sponsorship, community development, health initiatives and growing faith. Founded in 2001, Africa New Life today sponsors nearly 10,500 students in Rwanda, including more than 750 post-secondary students. The organization also supports more than 500 pastors and Bible students enrolled at Africa College of Theology, provides more than 2.25 million meals annually to its communities, and founded and helps fund the Dream Medical Center Hospital, the second-largest hospital in Rwanda.