Every day, people are searching for answers to make them stronger in body, mind, and spirit. They want to live longer, but healthier lives.
With this in mind, Gabriella Nandi, a Rwandan national dedicated to promoting a healthy lifestyle through fitness, nutrition and physiotherapy, founded Health Hub to help Rwandans in their health transformational journey.
Situated in Gikondo, a Kigali suburb, the hub opened its doors to Kigali residents in January this year. The health hub has been a concept she has had since she was a teenager. It was therefore no surprise that she chose to pursue a course in Public Health.
“Since I was young, health has always been my passion. I was fascinated by the biology of the body. I had just kept looking for a career that suited my passion so I pursued a career that coincided with my passion. At first I wanted to do medicine because that was the only career that I was introduced to but when I got to University I found out about Physiotherapy and learned about how much time you get to spend with the client and the amount time that goes into it and it just felt that it suited me more,” she shared.
Upon completion of her Bachelors degree in Physiotherapy, “there was a sense of wanting to provide holistic care, instead of only looking at the illness that the person came with. I need to look at what they do, what they eat, how they work, and how they feel because I realised that it all comes together and provides a better outcome.”
That is how she went on to do different courses, like a diploma in Nutrition, and her Postgraduate studies in Public Health to widen her scope.
“When I did my Postgraduate studies in Public Health, I realised that five of the top ten global causes of death are non-communicable diseases, which can be prevented by reducing risk factors such as obesity, poor diet, and inactivity. Research shows that, not just in the west, even in Africa, it’s starting to change, whereby you are getting a higher number of people dying from diseases like stroke, heart disease, diabetes and less infectious diseases like TB.
Therefore, if we can address the main risk factors, which are a sedentary lifestyle, poor diet and smoking we can control NCDs or prevent them,” she says.
Bringing holistic wellness home
Born in Uganda, raised in Rwanda, went to school in Kenya and did most of her university in the UK, Nandi has had her fair share of a multi-cultural experience, which, for her, has been helpful in her profession.
“The cultural shift also opened up my eyes because physiotherapy is a young profession here in Rwanda and has been practiced for over 100 years in some western countries.”
The hub today offers different kinds of body therapy including, Physiotherapy, massage, steam, and exercise therapy and will soon be offering nutritional and hydrotherapy.
“We hope to help people at an individual level and eventually on a wider scale, looking at policies and health campaigns. For example, motivating a large group of people to do exercise, to get fit to look after themselves,” she adds.
When she returned to Rwanda in 2018 with a mission to set up holistic conservative healthcare, she was pleasantly surprised by the talk that had already started in Rwanda, about being health conscious and having a good health style.
“With the car-free day, and seeing pictures of high government officials riding bikes, I was already seeing a shift. So people were now looking for guidance and we were received with open arms,” she recalls.
Like all businesses however, it was not without challenges.
“Firstly,” she explains, “any kind of health related business needs a lot of finance, machines are very expensive, and the space needs to be at par for you to be able to receive clients which also takes a lot of money.
Time was also a huge factor as it took four years to complete and then there was the issue of recruiting and managing employees because I was looking for professional and enthusiastic people.”
The restrictions imposed in the country due to the pandemic did not make it any easier, as most of the services they provide like gym, sauna and massage, were just recently allowed to operate.
Future plans
“We are getting more and more demand every day and I would love to have three or more physiotherapists to work with and manage the patient load. I would love to have a good nutritional therapist who can set up shop and help with the clients. Good trainers that actually have certificates and have learned and studied it. In terms of expansion, this is going to be my main focus,” she says of her experience.
With the facility now fully open, Nandi’s goal is to have its name out there, starting with health events and outreach services.
“We hope to maybe partner with car-free day, corporate companies and give out some free health information. That way it reaches many people so that not every client has to come through these doors to get help.
Outreach will be cheaper for others and even freely accessible,” she says.