I don’t know of anyone who enjoys hospital trips, but it is always emotional for me. When I visited the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK), I broke down, overwhelmed by emotion.

I don’t know if it was because of the old man on oxygen that was being pushed on his bed, or the little six-year-old girl who was crying because she had just been told she needed surgery that very day. 

"We are going to give you a beautiful balloon,” her mother who looked stressed was convincing her to enter the operation room.

A two-year-old baby was then brought from the operation room to the recovery room and was immediately put on oxygen. He was crying intensely when the nurse was patting his thigh telling him "ihorere ma, ihorere” for "stop crying, dear.”

His mother stormed into the room with tears rolling down her cheeks. She looked really worried and grateful at the same time, that her baby had made it out surgery. The child had respiratory complications and had been rushed to the hospital the night before.

This operating room has different cartoon drawings all over its walls; it almost looks like a kindergarten classroom, except that it has hospital beds. Even the waiting area has tiny colorful chairs and tables for children to sit on as they wait for surgery.

Before the country got this first ever ‘kids operating room’ in 2018, children had to share the general operating room with adults, which they had access to only two days a week. With just one pediatric surgeon in the country, around 10 children were operated on two days every week. 

Also, previously available equipment was limited in quantity and was not always appropriate for children's surgery.

Today, between 20 to 25 children are operated by two surgeons in five days every week, thanks to an operating room dedicated to children.

"Children have different needs from adults. It is important to normalize the operating rooms so it doesn’t look any different from their playing areas. We are used to the fact that they even fear shots, so this place helps them to feel at ease,” Dr Edmond Ntaganda, pediatric surgeon at CHUK told The New Times.

A mother who only wanted to be identified by "Maman Keyla” was waiting for her child’s turn for tonsillectomy – a surgical operation to remove tonsils – when she talked to The New Times.

"This is a good initiative because we are getting timely service, and since my child has toys to play with, she is not so scared,” she said. 

Surgery can be scary, even for adults. This is why it is recommended that children are provided with a more comfortable operation room to make it less stressful or traumatic for them. 

Ntaganda referred to this as creating a "child friendly” environment for child patients.

While this room has been undoubtedly beneficial, some challenges remain. At least 45 percent of Rwanda’s population- 13 million is under the age of 18. With just four pediatric surgeons in the country at the moment, the surgeon to patient ratio remains low, despite efforts to bridge that gap.

For instance, there is an ongoing training program accredited by the College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa (COSECSA) to train future pediatric surgeons in Rwanda. "We also plan to start a pediatric surgery program in the University of Rwanda this year,” Ntaganda added.

However, he believes that in at least five years, the number of pediatric surgeons will have doubled or tripled.

Expert surgeons in other fields are also needed, such as urologists and orthopedics, among others. However, these surgeons will also need more space. 

"This room has adequate equipment for pediatric surgery, some are even more advanced. But the number of such operation rooms needs to increase, because pediatric surgeons are going to increase in number too,” Ntaganda added.