Tag Archives: Rwanda

Incredible Mothers of Rwanda

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Rwanda Mothers

Photo courtesy of Heifer International

In African villages where Heifer International’s mission has not yet reached, lives mothers who struggle daily to feed and care for their families.

Rwandan mothers of Heifer projects share the same struggles. They are determined to build thriving businesses and provide for their children.

These incredible mothers of Rwanda are proud of their children and dream of overcoming the challenge of hunger and poverty.

Leigh Wood, Heifer’s donor engagement manager, shares about her recent visit with these amazing women.

Empower mothers around the globe

Three Days of Food

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What is your greatest dream for you and your family? What do you wish for most for your children? For just one moment, ask yourself these two questions and imagine all the possibilities.

And now let me tell you a story.

It was my first morning in Rwanda and already I was feeling overwhelmed by the beauty and harsh realities of this amazing country. As we drove south out of the capitol city, Kigali, to the Mareba district, everything I saw was foreign to me but somehow familiar at the same time. All the images I’d ever seen of Africa were right here on the road we were traveling−women carrying babies on their backs while balancing giant bundles on their heads, men on bicycles taking banana bunches to market, a blast of music from a passing mini-bus, and luscious green hills opening up to wide vistas as we wound our way out of the city into the countryside. It was a bright and sunny day, the wind blowing through banana trees. By the time we reached the village of Ruduha, I was enamored with and at ease in this new, exciting place.

But the harsh reality of what my travel companions and I were there to see quickly rushed in. That morning we were visiting families with severely malnourished and sick children. These families had little or nothing to eat on a daily basis and their children were often sick from malnutrition. We were there specifically to visit Emmanuel Hategeka, a 5-year-old boy with enormous eyes and a sweet disposition. Emmanuel’s family lives in a mud house, not unusual for most rural Rwandan families, but as we went inside I saw that there was nothing–no bowls, no cups, no clothes, no bed.

Emmanuel stands outside his family's house in the Mareba district of Rwanda.

Emmanuel is 5 years old and lives in Ruduha village in Rwanda.

Emmanuel’s family had one possession, a grass mat. The family had proudly put the mat–which is used by the family to sleep on every night–out in front of the house to greet us when we arrived. As we spoke with Emmanuel’s mother about his health and the family’s access to food, we learned that he and his two sisters, Jacqueline (4) and Josiane (1), often just eat cassava. Cassava is a tuber root similar to potatoes, and while it is a good source of carbohydrates, it does not provide enough protein or other nutrients to help children like Emmanuel develop strong and healthy bodies. When we asked when the family had last eaten, Emmanuel’s mother did not immediately answer. It was as if she was trying to remember when it had been. Today? Yesterday? She could not tell us for sure.

One of my colleagues asked Emmanuel’s mother, “What is the greatest dream for your family? What do you wish for most for your children?” Her answer was, “Three days of food.”

Three days of food.

I could see the devastating effects of malnutrition in Emmanuel. Although he was intrigued and excited to be the center of attention by this group of strange visitors, he quickly tired and had trouble standing and staying awake. Emmanuel’s body was so tired from lack of food that he was falling asleep as we filmed and interviewed him. My vibrant morning and feelings of exhilaration vanished at that moment–this is what we had come to see and the reality was that this 5-year-old boy was starving.

The work we were there to do–identifying these real-life stories of need–will hopefully bring many, many new donors to Heifer International. My hope is that it will allow us to increase the number of families we can reach in Rwanda and all across the world, so that children like Emmanuel have nutritious milk and eggs to eat every day, and have the chance to grow up healthy and strong, to go to school and to have medicine when they are sick. We need as many partners as we can to reach these families and help them lift themselves up out of poverty and hunger.

Emmanuel 1 v2

Emmanuel stands outside his family’s house in the Mareba district of Rwanda.

I had to remind myself of the good work that Heifer does and the good work we will continue to do as I watched Emmanuel struggle to stay awake. I reminded myself when I thought of Emmanuel’s mother and what she must feel knowing that her children won’t eat that day. I remind myself of the good work we do so that we can give mothers like her bigger dreams for their children instead of the daily struggle just to keep them alive.

And I reminded myself of it when we drove away from their village after thanking the family so much for allowing us to meet with them. I imagined what the rest of their day would be like, as the sun begins to set and no fire is made and no food is being cooked. And Emmanuel goes to sleep with his mother and father and two sisters on the mat on the floor of their house, with an empty stomach, again.

Empowering Women to… Empower Women

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Editor’s note: Empowering women is at the core of Heifer International’s model for sustainable development. In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, this week we are sharing stories of the women with whom Heifer works, who take the gifts of livestock and education to produce extraordinary results for themselves, their families and their communities.

Women are on the rise in Rwanda. The country’s constitution requires that 30% of its parliament be women, and Odette Uwamariya, governor of the Eastern Province of Rwanda says women now make up more than half the parliament. “Fifty-six point two percent,” Charles Kayumba, Heifer’s Rwanda country director, clarifies. Even better.

Rwanda

Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

This beautiful country, once so torn by civil war and later genocide, now knows almost no crime. Economic growth is at about 7%. Is it all due to women? Clearly, there are many factors at work here. But it’s significant that the genocide left the country 70% female. Women virtually had no choice but to step up to the work of re-building a nation.

Even with the development so evident in the capital city of Kigali, hunger and malnutrition are still the biggest problems in the provinces. Heifer has helped more than 40,000 families feed themselves and earn a living, most of them female-headed. The government of Rwanda has taken notice and started a program modeled on Heifer’s. The families who receive cows from the government are required to pass on the gift of the cow’s offspring to someone else in the community. Sound familiar? In many areas of the country, the government has turned to the experts– asking Heifer to oversee the program.

 

Uwamariya speaks about empowering women
Odette Uwamariya. Photo courtesy of Heifer International

“I want to acknowledge and recognize Heifer International for the good work they are doing here, and Dr. Kayumba for managing this program,” said Madame Uwamariya at our recent meeting in Rwamagana, the seat of the Eastern Province. Particularly among those affected by HIV, “we have seen tremendous changes after working with Heifer in terms of nutrition and income levels in the community,” Uwumariya reported.

A case in point is Nyirafaranga Liberathe, who lives in Rwinkavu Sector, Kayonza District. She is HIV positive, lost her husband during the genocide and now cares for three children and two grandchildren. When she first began taking medication for HIV in 2005, her antibody count (the bodies that fight infection) was around 96. Medication brought the number up to about 300. Since she began working with a Heifer goat project in 2010, she has been drinking goat’s milk regularly and eating more and better vegetables from her garden. Her antibody count now is at 926.

empowering women in Rwanda

Nyirafaranga Liberathe with grandchildren. Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

The transformation Liberathe has undergone is not just physical, though. Before she began working with Heifer, she felt separated from her community, guilty even. She kept her condition to herself. She lived in fear of poverty, of having nothing. Now, she says, “I feel stronger and am accepted by the community. I have food, I’m fine.” She realizes she now has hope, and a future. “I have helped another family [through POG], I am free from debt, I feel excitement and am happy to be able to assist someone else in need.”

Just as Liberathe has undergone a transformation, so has Rwanda, helped along by strong women… and Heifer International. You can see it in the landscape, in the city, in the countryside, and especially in the eyes of the Heifer project participants. Empowering women through development may not solve all the world’s problems, but after visiting Rwanda, it’s interesting to wonder just what might happen if more women in more places were given more tools and training. Imagine the transformation…

Make a difference by starting a women’s group today.

The Face of Poverty in Rwanda

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Editor’s note: February 20 is the World Day of Social Justice. In honor of this day, we bring you a portrait of extreme poverty in Rwanda. 

His name is Frank. He’s 18 months old and near death. 

Poverty in Rwanda

Frank is one face of poverty in Rwanda. Photo by Bill Fitzgerald, courtesy of Heifer International.

Frank is severely malnourished, dehydrated, feverish and coughing. We discover later that the cough is most likely due to tonsillitis (a small relief, as pneumonia was first suspected). He lives in Bugusera District, Eastern Province of Rwanda. My co-worker Leigh Wood and I have met Frank and his parents on a trip to document the need for Heifer’s work in this beautiful, hopeful country. This is a slightly different trip for us: we are in areas of Rwanda where Heifer does not currently operate, but hopes to soon. We are here to capture images like Frank’s. And we realize that the few stories we will capture are but the tip of the iceberg.

There is no food in Frank’s house. In fact, there’s hardly anything at all in his house. It’s a mud-and-stick structure about as big as most Americans’ dining rooms. There’s a dirt floor, a low wooden bench and a straw mat for sleeping. The sun shines through the holes in the wall as lizards scamper along the framework. Rwanda is an incredibly green, lush place, and vegetables will grow where they are planted in Frank’s yard. But the land has been handed down and sub-divided to the point where the family’s only plot for growing is about as big as the tiny house itself. He has not eaten today. Yesterday? Maybe, maybe not. His father drinks what little money comes in, and his mother tends their few plants as well as she can.

Frank’s mom gets him the mile or so down the road to the Rango Health Station where he is examined. He receives some juice and antibiotics. When we return to his house to continue filming, the difference is amazing. He has perked up, is talking and even walking some, a tad unsteadily. The village children turn out in scores to watch the muzungus (white people) and their cameras. At one point, Leigh pulls away from us, and I see her wiping her eyes. At that moment, I realize that Frank is almost the exact same age as Leigh’s baby boy at home in the States. A lump forms in my throat as I watch Leigh regain her composure and proceed to gleefully entertain and distract the dozens of children. (She is amazing to watch in this occupation.) I think to myself “the lump in my throat will go away. I know this. The hunger Frank feels will not.”

I’m struck by how little it took to snatch Frank from death’s door. A little nutrition, some medication. And how little it would take to change this family… this village… this district… this country. That’s why Heifer is here. That’s why we’re here, Leigh and I, to give witness to this solvable problem. We have seen scores of families and villages like Frank’s. We talk to the parents, play ball with the kids, entertain them across a language barrier and ultimately realize they’re not that different from us.

Can we make a difference in poverty at this scale? After seeing what so little can do for such dire circumstances as Frank’s, I’m convinced we can. What slight discomfort we might feel allocating the resources to make a difference will go away. But unless we do, the hunger won’t.

Heifer’s Legacy of Peace

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Through the support of our generous donors, Heifer International has put millions of families on the path to peaceful and sustainable futures. Here are just a few examples of how our gifts of livestock and training have made the world a more peaceful place.

 

After World War II, we sent heifers do devastated European communities to help them rebuild their lives and their livelihoods. Here a mother in Poland gives her daughters fresh milk.

Peace in post-WWII Poland.

Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

In 1951, with the Korean War still raging, Heifer sent three planeloads of hatching eggs to Korea – Heifer’s first “Egglift.”

Peace during Korean War.

Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

After more than two decades of genocide and civil war, Heifer is helping families in Cambodia by providing peaceful alternatives to lives of violence. Click photo for more Heifer Cambodia stories.

Peace in Cambodia.

Photo by Matt Bradley, courtesy of Heifer International.

Devastated by genocide, Rwanda has begun its long road to recovery thanks to the “cows of peace” that supporters like you have provided. Pass-ons between Hutus and Tutsis are now common and a shining example of how gifts to Heifer can lead to peace. Click image for more about peace in Rwanda.

Peace in Rwanda.

Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee, courtesy of Heifer International.

Help Heifer continue its Legacy of Peace by ending hunger and poverty now.

 

The Fruit of Tolerance in Rwanda

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I’ve been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel extensively in my work and in my personal life. From each journey, I’ve brought back experiences that enriched me and lessons that I know will stay with me throughout my life. Last year, I visited Rwanda for the first time, and what I learned from the trip and from the people of Rwanda was a lesson in the value of tolerance and the power of forgiveness.

Tolerance in Rwanda

Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee, courtesy of Heifer International.

Most of the world associates Rwanda with the genocide of 1994 – an attrocity born from the intolerance of one people toward another. For the people of Rwanda that experience and those memories are equally distant as they are fresh. Some are reticent to recount it while others recall it as it just happened yesterday. Yet all people agree that what was critical to the collective healing that has magically happened since the genocide is the commitment to forgiveness, to acceptance, to tolerance.

On this International Day of Tolerance we commemorate the ability of the people of Rwanda – and all other people the world over who have overcome great adversity- to thrive after conflict and build inclusive societies. In Rwanda’s case, several factors contributed to this: a strong government, communities of hope and forgiving people.

A big part of building communities of hope involved giving people the tools with which to rebuild their lives and through its work, Heifer International has been privileged to be a part of that. Years ago, the government initiated a project called “Girinka” to give “One cow per family” as part of its poverty reduction goal, and Heifer was asked to be a key partner in that effort. That program laid the foundation for the work that Heifer has since done through the East Africa Dairy Development project.

During my visit to Rwanda last year, I visited families that were part of the project. On our way to the project site we passed a community where Heifer had once worked with groups of women who are rebuilding their lives after losing their family members and everything they owned in the genocide. Many of them were raped and now live with HIV or AIDS. Rape is sometimes used as a weapon of war. During the tribunals that followed the genocide some people even attested to using AIDS infections as even more harmful weapons. The Rwandan experience was an unforgettable lesson in what intolerance can breed. But these women survived, and they are rebuilding their lives through agriculture, mostly as dairy farmers with cows that Heifer provided.

Tolerance in Rwanda

Mary shows off her biogdigester. Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

Hours later we pulled into the compound of Mary, a farmer who is being assisted through Heifer’s East Africa Dairy Development Program. Mary had five dairy cows, each in a stall in the corner of her tiny yard, in which was crammed the home she shares with her husband and the 12 children she cares for: four of them hers and eight orphans she adopted from deceased family members. On the other end of the yard was a small garden and in the third corner, a biogas unit, which digests the cow dung and feeds a tank with methane gas that she piped to her kitchen for cooking and for light. Mary talked to us about her challenges and her successes. As she talked, young boys brought large piles of fresh grass to feed the cows. Making a living to support the family took a family effort.

Tolerance in Rwanda.

One of Mary's sons with the family cows. Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

In the months since my visit the project has installed a chilling plant in the community, which serves as a bulking point for her and the 500 other farmers like her in her community, so that they can chill their milk until commercial enterprises come from the cities to collect it for sale. It opens up a wider market for the farmers and means their incomes can increase and their livelihoods improve.

What is also means is that families who may not ordinarily have much in common have reason to interact, to congregate, to come together to plan and build their communities and their families. These kinds of collaboration are the seeds of what Heifer calls “social capital” – social resources upon which people draw in pursuit of their livelihood objectives. These include networks and connectedness among individuals or groups of individuals; membership of more formalized groups; relationships of trust and reciprocity that facilitate reduction of transaction costs and may provide the basis for informal safety nets amongst the poor. These are the pillars of strong communities.

After the Rwandan genocide there was a war crimes tribunal set up. A period of reconciliation and justice began in late 1994, with the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the reintroduction of Gacaca, a traditional, ages-old village court system. In this process, people who confessed recounted what they did, sometimes even identifying the location of the bodies they had killed. Then they were sent to rehabilitation centers where they lived for a long time before they were released back into the community.  The capacity of the Rwandan people to forgive, as demonstrated during this period, astounded the world.

Tolerance in Rwanda

Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee, courtesy of Heifer International.

In the years since the genocide the people of Rwanda have changed their national identity: new flag, new anthem, new constitution even. They have and are redefining a new society: one that is inclusive, one that is hopeful, one that is tolerant.

As horrific as the genocide was, the tribunals were also a testament to the human capacity for forgiveness. Rwanda has moved on and is marching ever forward. It is, hopefully, if we are paying attention, a lesson to the rest of the world.

This holiday season, promote tolerance by helping families improve their lives. Give a biogas stove or the gift of a heifer now.

 

 

Heifer 12 x 12 Rwanda Round-Up

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In case you’ve missed any of blogger Betty Londergan’s posts on her blog, Heifer12x12.com, about her trip to Rwanda, here’s a quick round-up for you:

Betty Londergan and daughter Lulu

Betty Londergan and daughter Lulu

Stay tuned on Heifer12x12 as Betty writes about her travels to Armenia. And click here to help Betty reach her goal of raising $5,000 for Heifer.

East African Value-Added Cooperatives Rock

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Today, July 7 is United Nations International Day of Cooperatives. Join us as we highlight how Heifer International uses cooperatives in our work around the world.

Cooperatives rock! Wait a minute, as a Kenyan who grew up in Kenya, I hesitate… a bit. Given, it was a sad state of affairs for cooperatives in Kenya and larger East Africa, as we grew up. In the late 90’s the dairy cooperative industry in Kenya, for example collapsed, taking with it millions of farmer’s shillings and crushing their dreams, their family’s futures, their life worth investments. Farmers were left at the mercies of middle-men; known best for their knack of taking the products and not paying, or inconsistencies in collection of the products. It has taken a long time for farmers in the dairy sector to regain their confidence in cooperatives.

But…

Kenya EADD

Photo by Russell Powell, courtesy of Heifer International.

Today is a new dawn. As we celebrate UN Day of Cooperatives, we also celebrate a new revolution in dairy cooperative development that is taking shape in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. This is a revolution championed by Heifer International through its East Africa Dairy Development Project (EADD) and embraced by farmers in selected districts of the three countries. The project funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is one of the inspiring initiatives turning around the lives of over 176 000 farmers who are spread out in 68 innovative, value-added cooperatives partnering with EADD in the three countries. Farmers like Eliud Wanderi, 35, who today milks over 100 litres of milk from five Friesian dairy cows and makes a $900 every month. Five years ago, Eliud had one cow that produced 5 litres of milk at its best. On average, today, he supplies 110 litres of milk daily to the Mweiga Cooperative Society and neighbouring schools. Eliud is just one of the 2,275 members of Mweiga Cooperative Society in Kieni West, Nyeri County, Central province of Kenya who are making millions of shillings by pooling their efforts.

Agnes Mulindwa, a mother of five from Uganda, testifies to the improvement of her life since joining a cooperative that partners with EADD. “I recently built a new three-bedroom house, and my income has grown.” Stories like these can be heard throughout most of the project areas. Both Agnes and Eliud echo the feelings of their fellow farmers that the EADD hub model, which empowers and adds value to cooperatives, has enabled them access to extension services, markets and knowledge in animal husbandry. Such services had remained inaccessible to many small holder farmers previously.

This is how the revolution begins; cooperatives like Mweiga in Kenya are given a new lease on life, or Bubusi in Uganda are strengthened by partnering with EADD. EADD facilitates them to develop milk collection centers -some with chilling facilities- that hold milk for pickup by commercial dairy processors and traders. These cooperative businesses have created market opportunities by negotiating for better contracts with formal sector processors and traders. As a result, they have earned more than $58 million in milk sales over a three-year period. Linked to 15 affiliated savings and credit cooperatives, the farmers had made dairy related investments worth more than $5 million from 2008 to 2011. In addition, the cooperatives provide comprehensive input and advisory services to farmers, including financial services, feed and fodder, extension services, health insurance for members and animal health services.

The farmers have proven that with concerted efforts, cooperatives are indeed a crucial means for poverty alleviation in Africa and other developing countries. They are milking for profits, building wealth and fostering robust health for their families as they take care of their environment. As a result of interventions, formerly quiet villages are now abuzz with economic activities as early as 2:00 a.m., as farmers awake to their milk production businesses. Women like Agnes are able to sell their milk at all times, thus provide food, school fees and clothing for their families. Young men like Eliud have found alternative source of employment through their dairy businesses, carving out a brighter future for their children; and no longer idle in towns. In fact, EADD, the success of the cooperative and the opportunities created have inspired the EADD project to roll out a strategy to further engage youth in the East Africa dairy value chain, be it in feed production, transport or value addition of milk. The beauty of it is that the value-added cooperatives create a chain reaction of economic activities in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. Increasingly, farmers within these cooperatives are accessing credit from banks to improve their farms or invest in other ventures, unlike before when commercial banks were very reluctant to lend to farmers, as they were perceived to engage in farming as a way of life and not as a business.

We would then confidently say, even in an East African setting, that value-added cooperatives truly rock!

Connecting with Africa as Kwanzaa Begins

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I won’t pretend to know a lot about Kwanzaa. From what I’ve learned online, it’s an African-American and Pan-African holiday celebrated from December 26-January 1. While the holiday is rooted in ancient African history and culture, the modern iteration of Kwanzaa was established in 1966, making this year the 45th anniversary celebration. Kwanzaa was created to help reconnect African-Americans with traditional African culture. It was also intended to be a holiday to celebrate and reinforce the bonds between Africans as a people. And it was created to introduce and reinforce the Seven Principles, which are the communitarian African values of Unity, Self-Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity and Faith.

The Seven Principles really resonate with me as a Heifer employee and supporter, because they align well with our 12 Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development.

In honor of Kwanzaa, I thought I’d share this video about our work in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, where families have seen their lives transformed through our East Africa Dairy Development Project.

‘Secretariat’ Star Diane Lane ‘Saving the World, One Cow at a Time’

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In case you missed Secretariat co-star John Malkovich’s witty speech introducing Oscar-nominee Diane Lane in the Variety Power of Women awards on Sept. 30 in Beverly Hills, Calif., here’s a chance to enjoy it now.

Malkovich praises Lane’s work with Heifer International in his introduction and also thanked her for “teaching me that Heifer is actually spelled with only one “f”.
Get the scoop on the event on Zap2It.com. Learn more about Diane Lane’s work for Heifer International and read the World Ark article about her trip to Rwanda.