ALTON - In January 2025, Alton Memorial Hospital Chief of Staff and Chief of Anesthesia, Dr. Juri McDowell, traveled to Africa as part of an effort by regional business leaders to strengthen business relations between the St. Louis Metro area and Kigali, Rwanda. The overarching initiative, led by the World Trade Center and Nexus Group, is to establish a sister city agreement between St. Louis and Kigali. Dr. McDowell specifically wanted to learn more about the disparities in specialty medical care in the area and the innovations Rwanda has implemented in the setting of resource-strained healthcare delivery.
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While in the area, the group made an unscheduled stop at a local school for the blind named Seeing Hands Rwanda. The founder, Beth Gatonye, gave a tour of the small school and told the story of how she started it with her own money in her home not long after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi people. Students learn a variety of skills depending on their individual needs.
Gatonye offers instruction from basic education, to using assistive technology, computer and IT skills, musical training, and even massage therapy. Students are issued one pair of scrubs during their training and education, which is typically one year. When staff and students were asked what type of assistance would be impactful, assistance with securing quality scrubs was a common answer.
After returning to the states and sharing this experience with the AMH Medical Staff, funding was secured from Alton Memorial Hospital Medical Staff to provide 100 pairs of scrubs for the school in 2025, and another 100 pairs for 2026.
Ms. Gatonye recently texted Dr. McDowell a personal message of thanks to deliver to the Medical Staff: "Thank you and the staff doctors for such a generous donation! We are so grateful for your support and kindness. It truly means the world to us at Seeing Hands!”
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