By Dolapo Aina

Gabriella Nandi is one of the young generation of Rwandans who does things differently. The King’s College trained certified physiotherapist who returned home after spending most of her tentative years in the United Kingdom, to begin the health hub; is an advocate for healthy eating, healthy lifestyle and all its trappings (physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, fitness classes, nutrition, personal training, sports therapy, just to name a few). Whilst she is a physiotherapist, she can also metamorphose (if need be) into a jack of all trade and a master of some, if not all (as you would discover.)
I sat down with ebullient Gabriella Nandi at the health hub in Kigali on Friday, October 8, 2021 for an extensive interview bordering on several themes. Do read the excerpts.

Who is Gabriella Nandi and why did you decide to venture into this line of business in Rwanda?

I am a physiotherapist and I currently own the health hub situated in a part of Kigali called Gikondo. The health hub really came about because of my profession. I have always been passionate about the body and it was a dream of mine to start something of such nature. That is how I started. Basically, when I was younger it had been a dream of mine because I was really interested in the body, medicine, healing. Initially, I thought I wanted to be a medical doctor but then, after a few different experiences, I leaned towards physiotherapy. And once that happened that was when I had the inspiration for the concept of the health hub because then I thought, how can you make physiotherapy more holistic? What other services go with physiotherapy that can compliment and go with holistic package for the patient or client? That was why we decided to add exercise therapy, massage therapy, nutritional therapy; all in one and hopefully in the future we would add more treatments and options for people. So, pretty much, my passion is lifestyle (health lifestyle). I did my masters in public health and that gave me more of a boost in health promotion and prevention. Prevention of non-communicable diseases and that has been my passion for the last three to four years. And this is because, you find that obesity is on the rise in many African countries and so you find that actually we are moving away from the main causes of death being infectious diseases and more towards non-communicable diseases. Things like stroke, diabetes, cardiac problems etc. and the main risk factors are lack of exercise, poor diet and bad habits.

In Africa, we tend to think that these are Western issues not ours. But during my masters, I found out that actually it is a big problem here.

It is a big problem on the African Continent. Why so?

It is because since we have been so focused on infectious diseases which are still prevalent in many African countries, you have a double burden of diseases where you have mainly the low-income earners still suffering from infectious diseases like malaria. Then you have the middle to high income who are starting to be affected a lot by the non-communicable diseases like strokes, diabetes and heart diseases. Now, the reason why I say it is a big issue is that, not that is not a big issue in the rest of the world, it has to do with awareness in Africa. When you talk to people, you find out that most people think that these non-communicable diseases are Western problems but actually it is becoming an African problem. And I cannot remember the actual figures but we are finding that the projections forward; they are actually looking at Africa being the lead in non-communicable diseases and it is rising even more.

But how is that possible when we as Africans on the African Continent are not the ones with the deepest pockets in terms of spending power?

Now, that is the thing. You find out that for example, the people with the most non-communicable diseases especially diabetes are in India and India has a huge people of low-income earners. But what you are finding out now is that because food is more easily accessible and to be specific, unhealthy food is more easily accessible, low-income people are misusing it more and high-income people are actually more aware, so they are able to afford the organic food items; food stuff with less sugar etc. you find that high income earners are in a better position to place themselves to access good healthy food.

So, basically, you are stating that good healthy food items are more expensive while unhealthy food items are cheaper?

Two things here. Not that they are more expensive but there are two factors you should take into consideration. One is that access is increasing into unhealthy food. Mind you, unhealthy food does not necessarily have to be unprocessed sugar. It could be that one is just eating a lot of carbohydrates, a lot of rice, a lot of potatoes and not mixing, not eating vegetables and not having a balanced diet. And then, you have the issue of organic food items which are slightly more expensive to access. Let us say like in Rwanda, with farmers having small land, majority of farmers are using pesticides and pesticides have been linked to cancer and cancer is a non-communicable disease. So, unless I have the knowledge and the capacity to look for knowledge, I am less likely to do so. And sometimes actually, you can find that healthier options are more accessible to me but my knowledge and my awareness of knowing that I have to eat multiple and a good range of food (and not thinking that eating is just eating potatoes etc), you find out that, that is what creates the problem.

How did you begin the health hub? How did the idea come about? And when did it transmute from hobby to an idea to full implementation (reality)?

To start off with, I would say, it has been a journey whereby I knew this was my destination. When I was in the United Kingdom working as a physiotherapist, I was trying as much as I can to learn outside of physiotherapy. I did diploma courses in nutrition, sports massage therapy. I also, studied a lot of courses online. When I was working in the hospital, I would get a lot of leaflets and information about all the other services. I knew that when I came home, I would do a lot more than just physiotherapy. With that in place, I was almost setting myself up to start the health hub. One time when I came home for holidays from the United Kingdom (whilst doing my masters), my parents who have been my biggest supporters since I was young and because they are business people who believe you should work for yourself (one thing they have been pushing us to do.) So, when I moved back home, I informed my father about my plans to return to the UK, do my masters and continue working. And he said, why don’t I just start?
I thought it was impossible and he said, let us just have a look. And somehow, God put everything in place (which I cannot explain). We were able to find this location at a very good price. And then, we started. It took four years to complete but we started. We started innovating, giving ideas. For good two years, we were just in construction and as we were going on, more ideas would come. It started out as just physiotherapy centre and then I thought physiotherapy is a young profession in Rwanda and not many people even know what physiotherapists so. Why don’t I add services that people are already aware of and comfortable with that would brin them in and then teach them about physiotherapy and then access them. And I thought that gym goes really well with physiotherapy and I would need a gym with a physiotherapy. And that is how that started. I got feedback from other Rwandans on what they are looking for in a place and I found out that the one thing that is missing is a place that has multiple services in one because many people would go for one service and one thing e.g. physiotherapy and you lose track of them where as for The Health Hub, once you are done with physiotherapy, we get you started with a gym membership with a trainer that has been trained by a physiotherapist. This way, they keep going and they can change their lifestyle. And so, just by feedback and God’s Grace if I am honest, it just slowly came together in a way I cannot really explain. But the dream and the goal had always been there.

What would you say are some of the challenges you have faced in trying to make this dream into a reality?

I faced challenges. For instance, I had spent most of my life not in Rwanda but just coming for holidays, so there was a lot I had to learn regarding everything; dealing with construction workers, knowing where to source for products.
Different mindsets.

Yes, different mindsets and also knowing where to source for information on and for my business. And initially, it felt overwhelming and almost impossible.

Also, language barrier was there (obviously it improved with time). All of that increased my frustration and it made it feel like an almost impossible task. Other challenges we faced were obviously practical challenges like access to finance (there were times we had to stop for months because of that.) There would be things we had to start off with but could not afford, so that prolonged the process and made the whole project last many years. Other than that, every other thing was pretty straightforward. I think the only other thing was finding stuff like equipment. We don’t have manufacturing capacity here in Rwanda but importing things could be cumbersome and a huge hustle. When you import things first, getting them over here, getting them through customs, the process is arduous and very expensive. And for someone who is starting a new business, it can almost collapse your business if you don’t have something in the bag.

And what are your high points since the health hub kicked off?

My highs have been getting to know my full potentials. So, because of not having enough access to finance, we did a lot of stuff ourselves. For example, I became a construction manager.

Really?

Yes. I can do that. If someone had a construction project and needed a construction manager, they could hire me and I would execute the construction project.

Seriously?

Yes. Also, I became my own designer. I did not know I had design skills. Somehow when I noticed the designers were charging me exorbitant fees, my mother pushed me to do it myself. And I commenced deep research and somehow, I was able to create a space that everyone including I, love.

So, basically, necessity became the mother of all innovation.

Absolutely, well said. I even became a web developer and created the company’s website. The list goes on. These are things we had never anticipated we would ever do.
I am playing an “angel’s advocate” here.

Someone reading this would wonder if Gabriella is saying all this or is it that she is tight-fisted with money? Because you became your own web developer, construction manager. People would say, these were not your field but you were stingy with resources?

The reality was that I could not just afford it, it was just too expensive. And I got to a place where I was almost begging people to just help me at a lower price and you would find that when you go to someone who was willing to do it at a cheaper price, the product comes out not so good.

Like inferior and not the quality you wanted?

Yes. And sometimes, it was still a lot of money but I am not going to spend a lot of money to get poor quality and I could not genuinely afford the prices the designers were charging me (the web designers hit us with bills that we knew were almost impossible.) And so, every task I ended up undertaking, before doing the task, I always ended up panicking and always thought it would never get done but my mother would always say just do it yourself and within a short time, I began to believe in it. For instance, with the web development, I went on Youtube and found loads of content which would teach you from a to z on how to do it. And so, I just started and when I put my mind to something, I go all the way and I became obsessed with it. The more I delved deeper into it, the more I learnt the benefits. Because now that I did my own construction work, I have learnt to value the property, to know what a particular challenge is (electrical or plumping issues.) I know where everything is. Even though it was hard, it was such a great learning experience. And I cannot recommend it for everyone but what I can say is, I would recommend it for anyone who is willing because I learnt so much about my space and I was able to put a lot of my mind and focus into it. I would get these designers who would have all these nice ideas but they were not my vision and it was hard to steer them towards my vision.

Basically, they were not in your head.

Exactly and because I am very particular and I know exactly what I want. I could be very hard to work with if you are a professional because I could be like; “No, I want this” and they could be like; “my years of experience says this”.

How has the commencement of the business been? Tremendous opportunities and future goals for the health hub?

Starting the health hub has been exposed so many opportunities all in the health sector for now. The more people I interact with in the hub, the more they tell us what they need. The feedback gives us ways and ideas to work on. Just within the health hub itself, it has so much potential in adding more services and value to what we are currently giving. Also, in terms of the future, I would love to be able to reach a much larger poll of people. Because we are here and it is a physical location, we cannot reach someone in Uganda or people that live outside Kigali. So, we find that if in the future we have more health hubs in the country or even organise outreaches just to educate people about living a healthier lifestyle. And we want in the near future to start something online in the mould of a Youtube channel to be very active online giving physiotherapy-based and related information and when someone needs extra advice, they can pay us a visit. But I have discovered that with a lot of my clients, the first few things I tell them, they usually don’t know and this makes a huge difference to solving their problems that they have. So, the more we do things online the better.