Kwitaho - Bringing healthcare to rural Rwanda

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05/2022

This project earned me the top grade.

Kwitaho Means “to take care” in Kinyarwanda, the official language of Rwanda, and is a system for community leaders and healers to improve the results of their work. The 3 boxes treat symptoms of 3 common conditions (diarrhoea, Malaria and Measles), they have an intuitive, tiered tray system that includes medical tools, medicine, space for traditional healing items and pattern-coded instructions.

For a project, we had to try and solve a problem inside the wider UN goals for sustainable development, I ended up choosing to focus on goal 3, Ensuring healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. through some surface research, I learned that diarrheal diseases are among the biggest killers of people on Earth, especially in Subsaharan Africa. From there, I dug deeper and realised that there was a specific country that seemed to be making a huge effort, Rwanda. They are helping numerous foreign companies implement new solutions to healthcare there, they are investing in local and foreign research and development, the population is highly literate, especially for the area, and they're one of the countries that are improving their public healthcare system the most.

I decided that a good jump-start point would be there, tackling two of their biggest issues, their trifecta of illnesses (Malaria, Measles and diarrheal diseases) and the disconnect between healers and western-style doctors. The symptoms of the illnesses would be treated with conventional medicine while allowing space for healer methods and approaches. As part of the process, healers would get something they've been asking for according to my research, more training from doctors and nurses on how to identify and start treating ailments, forming a bridge between the more caring world of the local communities, and the more medical one of western style medicine.

For this project, I made a lot of academic research, sketching, and finally, prototyping and rendering. This project came from an evolution in which I looked at different issues that the UN mentioned before concentrating in what I have already told.

Once I had picked my path and layed my project, I started testing form and aesthetics.

After arriving to the final form, I made a series of 3D renders and 3D prints to show the flowing, agaseke basket inspired, shape and tray sizes. Usability was tested on it. The patterns of the instrutions are replicated on the trays to ease understanding and set a use path. They are highly graphical and intended for a lightly trained user.