Dr. Faustin Ntirenganya

You have to be a rock on which the patient can lean, but sometimes even rocks crack.

After completing his surgical education in Paris, plastic surgeon Faustin Ntirenganya forgoes the prospect of a well-paid career. Instead, he returns to Rwanda to help establish the country’s first reconstructive plastic surgery unit for patients with burns, trauma, cancer tumours, and congenital birth defects.

He is soon overwhelmed by the workload and begins developing a strategy to increase the number of reconstructive plastic surgeons in the country. He envisions a new generation of specialists who can meet the urgent need for safe surgery.

Faustin finds himself in a fragile state, forced to balance the time spent lobbying for funding to realise his vision with an ever-growing waiting list of patients – all while managing the demands of a young family.