A TEAM of volunteers from Worcestershire with expertise in different fields have returned from Rwanda.

Worcester city councillor and retired consultant physician David Tibbutt, retired advanced practioner in ultrasound Tricia Baker and Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for west-Worcestershire Harriet Baldwin all went to the African country to pass on their knowledge.

The three volunteers were joined by more than 100 others on Project Umubano – the Conservative Party’s social action project for Rwanda – to work in five different areas: education, construction, justice, private sector and health.

Mr Tibbutt, who has also done voluntary work in Uganda, said there were only 400 doctors in Rwanda, despite it having a population of eight million.

“We literally consulted from dawn til dusk,” he said.

“Our presence was announced in the local church and people turned up day after day and we worked solidly to try and see everybody.

“I saw about 330 people in about eight days.”

Mr Tibbutt said the nearest hospital to the medical centre he was based at in Kirambi was four hours away.

“People were walking 10 to 15km to come and see us,” he said. “I saw quite a lot of malaria but a lot of conditions we were seeing were things like backache, arthritis, lumber strain and knee problems.

“It was an eye-opener.”

Mrs Baker, of Wick, near Pershore, who used to work at Worcester Royal Infirmary and Evesham Community Hospital, said she spent the self-funded two-week trip at a teaching hospital in Butare.

“I almost slept for two days when I got back,” she said. “We started at 7.30am and finished at 6pm. We were trying to train as many people as we could. We do hope we have made some sort of difference.”

Mrs Baldwin, who has worked in the private sector, said she was there to help Rwanda’s fledgling banking system, stock market and small businesses.

All three of them said that Rwanda – the world’s 20th poorest country – is gradually getting back on its feet after about one million people were killed in genocide in 1994.

Mrs Baldwin said: “Everyone is very friendly, positive, optimistic and determined to follow the president’s guidance. He is very enlightened.”

The group even met President Paul Kagane when he opened a new community centre in Kinyinya – a village created for parentless families following the genocide.

Mrs Baldwin said she was now looking into the possibility of developing twinning links between parishes in Rwanda and Worcestershire.

Any parish council interested in the twinning opportunity should contact Mrs Baldwin by e-mailing her at harriett@harriettbaldwin.com or calling 01684 573469.