Andre Ndayambaje

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights | Rwanda

2020 New Voices Fellow

Andre

Andre is a midwife and neonatal nurse who is passionate about ending preventable maternal and child deaths. He was drawn to midwifery after nearly losing his sister and her newborn baby during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Andre was just 11 years old when his sister gave birth while they were hiding in a forest. She was bleeding and needed urgent care. He shouted and caught the attention of some soldiers, who saved his sister and her hypothermic baby. Today, he says that he is “the voice and the messenger of the newborns, of preterm births, of small babies, of sick babies, who continue to die every day and every second due to preventable causes”.