The 13 June 2010, I had the tremendous honor of being welcomed to Dartmouth by my friend Jim Kim to receive an Honorary Doctor of Sciences. This is the video from the ceremony.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wifKgJ3UjaM
Honorary degree citation to Agnes Binagwaho (Doctor Of Science)
by Jim Kim
President of Dartmouth
Agnes Binagwaho, you are a healer for whom healing alone is not enough. In your life’s work as a pediatrician and leader in public health, you have never rested in trying to make today better than yesterday and tomorrow better than today.
You believe that any problem can be solved if we work hard enough to find solutions within our culture and within ourselves. Your tenacity demonstrates the power of that belief.
You trained as a doctor in Belgium and France. But rather than remaining in Europe for a successful and comfortable career, you returned to your native Rwanda, where you rose to the herculean task of rebuilding a country devastated by genocide.
In the process, you helped to create a health care system that has become a model for all of Africa. Malaria mortality in your homeland has been reduced by two thirds. Seventy percent of Rwandans with HIV/AIDs now have access to antiretroviral drugs. And, more than 90 percent of Rwandans now have health insurance.
Today, as Rwanda’s Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, yours is a clarion voice in support of women’s rights and you are an eloquent champion of participatory health care. You are empowering adolescents to make choices that will lead to better health outcomes. You are a savior to them and an inspiration to us all.
And for all the seriousness of your life’s work, you have never let it weigh down your spirit or drive the joy from your soul. For all this and all of your accomplishments, the Dartmouth community is proud to confer on you the honorary degree, Doctor of Science.
