Follow Our Journey.

Our History

Our Founding Story

Nearly ten years after the first recorded case of HIV in Rwanda, the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi took more than one million Rwandan lives, severely depleting the country’s health workforce and devastating an already fragile health care system. In the following years, dedicated leaders, communities and individuals came together to rebuild Rwanda and its health infrastructure in the face of the growing HIV/AIDs epidemic.

In 2006, a unique partnership between the Rwandan Defense Force (RDF), Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (CDU) and Drew Cares International (DCI) formed to serve a population particularly at risk of contracting and spreading HIV: the military, their families and surrounding communities.

2017

In 2017, Alliance for Healthy Communities (AHC) was born out of this partnership, with the goal of creating local, sustainable capacity to continue the progress made in the fight against HIV/AIDs with support from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the U.S. Department of Defense HIV/AIDS Prevention Program (DHAPP). Drawing from a decade of experience and successes working with the RDF, CDU and DCI, AHC continues to play a critical role in providing innovative technical assistance with the aim of building the capacity of HIV/AIDs prevention, care and treatment programs in Rwanda.

The Alliance for Healthy Communities (AHC) remains committed to strengthening Rwanda’s health systems by building sustainable capacity, with a focus on addressing the critical shortage of healthcare workers in Sub-Saharan Africa. This region bears over 25% of the global disease burden, yet has access to only 3% of the world’s healthcare workforce.

While Rwanda has made significant progress since reporting its first HIV case in 1983, regional disparities continue to challenge healthcare delivery. AHC responds to these gaps through evidence-based HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs, emphasizing capacity building and rigorous evaluation to address workforce shortages. The success of these initiatives is rooted in the trust of local communities and strong partnerships with key stakeholders.