BUJUMBURA, February 8th (ABP) – The Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS received on Tuesday February 6, 2024 a donation from the World Bank to Burundi, consisting of 20 medical ambulances intended for hospitals, including 3 national hospitals and 20 others for the interior health districts of the country.
The delegate of the resident representative of the World Bank to Burundi, Mr. Omer Zang, indicated in his speech for the occasion that this donation is part of the Covid-19 project in Burundi. He therefore asked the Ministry in charge of Public Health to take care of that equipment and renew it.
Taking the floor, the Minister of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS, Dr. Lydwine Baradahana, indicated that the government of Burundi received a donation of 60,000,000 USD as additional financing from the World Bank to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. Following the regression of the epidemic at the global level, she continued to say, the country requested a restructuring of the project which led to the identification of new activities for the strengthening of the health system, hence the purchase of 100 ambulances to improve the referral and counter-reference system.
Dr. Baradahana specified that the 20 ambulances are worth three billion one hundred and eighty-four thousand, nine hundred and thirty-two thousand Burundi Francs (3,184,932,2000 BIF), or $ 1,111,520. Thirty other ambulances will soon be delivered as the supplier has already initiated the process of their customs clearance, she stressed.
These ambulances will be managed digitally in order to follow every movement, at every moment, reported Minister Baradahana, adding that their users have benefited from the support of “Kira Hospital” in terms of training for their use.
Dr. Baradahana took the opportunity to call on the services using those ambulances to manage them responsibly.