Rwanda links

Here are some recent links on Rwanda:

• PBSVideo has a great segment on Partners in Health's program in Rwanda (you may recognize the organization for their work in Haiti). You will learn a bit about Rwandan health care, the PiH approach, and community health workers, as well as get to see some Rwandan scenery. If you have 20 minutes, take a look. Rwanda may be best recognized in the West because of the genocide, but the country is an innovator in the fields of community health and national health care (as well as economic development, among other things).
• This IRIN article discusses the NGO Avega Agahozo's work with widows of the genocide. The effects of rape and other forms of sexual violence are still felt 16 years later, but this article discusses the positive steps being taken by survivors themselves. Avega Agahozo, founded by women survivors, is now treating nearly 50,000 women for medical issues associated with their traumas and has 25,000 members who presumably gain psychological and social support from the organization. Avega also provides legal services for women who want to testify in Rwanda's gacaca courts (ga-cha-cha: the traditional community courts adapted to address the genocide).  
• On the economic front, The Economist recently wrote about Rwanda's plan to get every child in the country on a computer. This represents a huge logistical and technological challenge, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
• Texas in Africa (one of my favorite blogs) writes about politics in Rwanda and links to a recent Human Rights Watch report on the subject.
• Lastly, This is Africa's Real World: African Autocrats edition cracked me up. A lesson in African politics in the form of blunt satire.

I leave in less than two weeks. I'm ready mentally, but my to-do list is still too lengthy and my farewell tour in DC in NY has been disrupted by the snow, leaving me unable to say goodbye to several friends.