They do not wear capes. They wear uniforms, often wrinkled from a long shift, sometimes stained with effort, always carried with pride.

Today, May 12, is International Nurses Day. For many, it passes quietly. No parade, no grand speeches. Yet without nurses, no health system could function, no clinic could open its doors, no hospital could survive a single night.

They are the ones who hold a hand in silence when pain speaks too loudly. The ones who remember not just the treatment, but the patient’s name, their fears, their mother’s phone number.

They work through exhaustion, through alarms that never stop ringing, through the weight of other people’s lives.

In Rwanda, like elsewhere, nurses are often the first and last faces patients see. In rural health centers, they are sometimes the only professionals present.

They give vaccines, deliver babies, explain prescriptions, calm parents, and adjust IV drips, often in the same hour. Their work is invisible until the moment it becomes essential.

Worldwide, nurses represent nearly 60 percent of the entire healthcare workforce. Yet many still face low pay, unsafe conditions, and little recognition. They care for others, even when no one cares for them.

This year’s theme is “Our Nurses. Our Future.” It is a reminder that health systems are not built by policies alone.

They are built by people. And nurses are at their foundation. So if you pass one today, in a hallway, in a village, in a hospital or a health post, take a second. Say thank you. Because when everything else collapses, nurses remain.