Princess Lalla Asmaa, President of the Lalla Asmaa Foundation, visited on Tuesday in Kigali the Mike Stenbock Gemura Kitchen, the first central kitchen in Rwanda for hospitalized patients, established with the support of the Mohammed VI Foundation for Sustainable Development.
Designed on an industrial scale, this kitchen helps the Rwandan association Solid’Africa provide patients most in need with meals tailored to their health condition and recovery, according to a press release by the Lalla Asmaa Foundation.
The Princess who was accompanied during this visit by Isabelle Kamariza, founder of Solid’Africa, about the initiative born of a simple observation: in Rwanda, hospitalized patients rely on their families for meals, and the most disadvantaged go without, the same source points out, adding that it all began in 2010 when a group of friends started cooking at home for patients at the Kigali University Hospital.
Fifteen years later, the kitchen operates at an industrial scale and can prepare up to 15,000 meals daily, with a team of cooks preparing eight diets adapted to each patient’s health condition.
The meals are delivered daily to public hospitals, where teams serve them to patients. They are free for patients unable to pay, and available for a fee to others, though all meals are of equal quality.
In 2025, 3.2 million meals were served to 130,000 patients and their companions in six public hospitals, with the objective of reaching 47 public hospitals across the country.
Morocco is a stakeholder in this success: the Mohammed VI Foundation for Sustainable Development supported the construction of the kitchen alongside the Imbuto Foundation, with which it has maintained ties since 2016.
The model is made to be sustainable. Following a “farm-to-table” approach, Solid’Africa grows most of the produce used in its kitchen and sources the rest from cooperatives of small-scale farmers, mostly women, whom it trains and guarantees a stable market. As for kitchen waste, it is returned to the farms as fertilizer.
Earlier Tuesday, Princess Lalla Asmaa visited in Kigali the Memorial dedicated to victims of the the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda, as well as the Museum of the Campaign Against Genocide.
At the genocide Memorial, located in Gisozi on the suburbs of Kigali, she laid a wreath of flowers in tribute to victims of the genocide, then observed a minute of silence in presence of Dr. Jean Damascène Bizimana, Minister of National Unity and Civic Engagement, in charge of genocide memorial, according to another press release from the Lalla Asmaa Foundation.
The Princess paid her respects at the burial site where more than 250,000 victims are laid to rest; the wreath was laid in accordance with Rwandan traditions.
Princess Lalla Asmaa then toured the site, where she visited exhibitions that chronicle the history of the genocide and give a voice to survivors, as well as the area dedicated to the memory of murdered children.
The Memorial, inaugurated in 2004, is a space for reflection, learning, and education. It houses the Genocide Archive.
