Halfway There

Look who needs a hair cut! Where's your favorite barber when you need him?

It’s hard to believe I’ve already been in Rwanda for a month. We’ve passed the half-way point in our program here and it seems like there is so much left to be done. Our students are hard at work, but, I know they have begun to understand the daunting challenges they’ve taken on. As previously mentioned, we have three groups of students working on separate tasks.

Our Nutrition team has taken on creating a unified curriculum manual for use by our Rwandan nutrition educators. They also are working to develop a more effective Monitoring and Evaluation plan so that we can better understand the impacts of our work here.

The Agriculture group is developing a comprehensive strategy for improving our farm. Currently, the farm is operating on nearly entirely organic principles, with a few exceptions. We are developing strategies to shift over to a 100% organic farm structure. With all the unique challenges that farming in Africa brings they have their plates full, but some other projects they are working on include an irrigation system, organic pest control methods, a drying/seed starting house, and creating a self-sustaining food forest.

Finally, our Sustainability team is dedicated to providing long term sustainable funding sources for the organization. With an operating budget of less than 30 thousand USD per year Kuzamura Ubuzima (Growing Health), our partner organization, feeds breakfast and lunch to about 110+ mothers and children facing the effects of malnutrition here in Butare. Since the beginning of the project, KU has not missed a feeding even a single day! Probably the biggest challenge the organization faces is how to continue funding our work and allowing the organization to grow and feed the remainder of those in the current hospital, as well as to begin serving other local medical facilities who are also asking for assistance. As with many non-profits, KU faces the challenge of a greater need than they can realistically meet in this stage of their growth and development.

I am truly enjoying working with the students, but, perhaps more impressive is our staff. KU employs five primary staff members, along with a little more than twenty support staff. The KU staff have faced extreme horrors during the 1994 genocide, and yet, they came out more determined and dedicated to helping their country. The country experienced the unimaginable, but they have found a way to forgive, move past, and rebuild their country. Larette, Vanessa, Emmanuel, and Alex especially have been kind enough to share their work, lives, and stories with us and I am extremely grateful that they continue to support us and their community.

If you want to support Growing Health and the amazing work we are doing, please head to the website and click “donate”. (One of our projects is editing the website so please excuse our digital dust!)

Laurette, KU's President explains how the farm functions to feed the beneficiaries. 

Mulching conserves water and helps prevent weeds. This is especially necessary during the dry season.

Our farmers hard at work. Every farmer we hire is selected carefully and based on the need of the farm as well as the farmer and their family.

Preparing food for over 100 people is no simple task. Kawngra is a cornmeal biscuit common in Rwanda.