Strengthening Pandemic Preparedness through WASH and Infection Prevention

Category

Health in Africa Series

Country

Rwanda

Pillar

Network Learning & Development

Pandemic preparedness begins long before an outbreak becomes a crisis .

In the next episode of the Health in Africa webinar series, we bring together leading experts to explore how resilient health systems, strong Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) services, and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) measures can help prevent outbreaks before they escalate.

Join IPC and WASH experts, Olive Ntakirutimana and Bruce Uwonkunda from Water For People Rwanda as they share practical approaches to strengthening healthcare systems through sustainable WASH services and robust IPC measures.

What You Will Learn:

• Proactive Prevention Strategies: Learn how reliable water supply, sanitation, and handwashing systems help keep frontline healthcare environments safe.
• Workforce and Community Readiness: Explore how healthcare workers and communities can strengthen infection prevention practices at both facility and household levels.
• Collaboration Models for Local Impact: Understand how partnerships between researchers, local governments, NGOs, and communities can generate African-led evidence that shapes long-term public health policy.

Speakers

Mrs. Olive Ntakirutimana is an experienced infection preventionist and midwife with over 10 years of clinical practice specializing in Infection Prevention and Control (IPC), WASH, and infectious disease outbreak response. Skilled in strengthening IPC systems, mentoring healthcare teams, and coordinating outbreak responses with health authorities. Expertise includes training healthcare providers on IPC WASH standard precautions and transmission-based precautions and WASH protocols. As a certified national master trainer in IPC and WASH, Olive is committed to advancing safer healthcare environments through evidence-based practices, capacity building, and collaborative system strengthening.

Mr. Bruce Uwonkunda is the Chief of Party for the Isoko y’Ubuzima Project, a U.S. Government-funded WASH project implemented in Rwanda. He has over 16 years of experience in WASH and environmental management, with a strong track record in project leadership, sector coordination, and institutional capacity strengthening. Since joining Water For People in 2015, Bruce has supported district-level capacity building to strengthen the delivery of sustainable WASH services, serving in leadership roles including Senior Program Officer and WASH Sustainability Manager.