The pioneers march in: Rwanda opens a health-sciences college to train its own doctors, at home

On Friday the first class of Rwanda's new Defence College of Health Sciences walked through the gates of the Rwanda Military Academy at Gako. The college blends military science with clinical training, research and innovation — and its founding principal, Yeshigeta Gelaw, made no small promise: to build 'one of Africa's premier institutions for health sciences education.' Defence Minister Juvenal Marizamunda told the first students simply: 'You are the pioneers.' A small country deciding it will grow its own world-class doctors rather than import them.