The first EDUBWIZA Open day

On December 22, 2013 we organised an open day. It was the first since 2010 when we started functioning as a nonprofit. We are thanking everybody who showed up for this information sharing and socialising afternoon with us. Our team genuinely appreciates everyone's contribution. 

Supporter's assistance continues to play an important role in helping women, children and men whom we work with in Rwanda. We definitely would not have achieved much without them.

During the open day we held discussions with sponsors of children who are on our education programme in Rwanda. Supporters donate money to our EDUBWIZA programme, then we send every eligible needing child from the Cyaruzinge - village, in Rwanda in schools.

 The discussions were amicable and constructive. We learned so much from each other. It was one of those moments you feel inspired to continue helping needy people... We are definitely not giving up on these people, we will keep pushing.

Although many challenges still exist in each home within the locality where we work, we continue taking baby-steps at a time, starting small and funding low-cost projects. 

In addition to the EDUBWIZA programme, we further assist the entire village members subscribe to the Mutuelle de sante. This health insurance policy by the Rwandan government plays a major role in bringing health care to the poor. 

Due to the approaches we use and the two projects we are implementing in this particular community, we are getting encouraging feedback and impressive results. Besides beneficiaries of our programmes are showing positive changes. Moreover, children are going to school and the beneficiary members of the entire group look healthier than earlier.  We are happy with achievements gained so far, but it could be better!

We pride ourselves to use the little means at hand in a cost-effective way. Frankly, we are not going to solve every issue affecting people we are working with. But for sure we can prove that our service is reaching the intended people and delivering positive results. We believe that our collaboration with this community is helping them craft a future they wish for themselves. 

In the past we have relied on word of mouth to market ourselves. But after this day's experience we realise open days are alternatives to market our work. We will plan many more in future.

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One Love

I came across an article on Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National"Songs of the Voiceless" which was recorded in a village we work with in Rwanda. At the beginning of the video, there are children singing. It is amazing seeing how in just a span of two years these kids have grown. Presently, these children are able to attend school because of the help our project EDUBWIZA extends to them.

 For those who didnt know, we have a music CDs for sale from this village for a good cause. If interested in knowing more about this music, follow this link.

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Health insurances

An old man showing Mutuelles for his family

For 19 years, Rwanda is actively drafting and implementing a series of essential and pro poor reforms within its various sectors of development. 

The Rwandan leadership under President Paul Kagame is committed to transform Rwanda into a middle income nation by the year 2020 also commonly known as the Vision 2020. Recently, the World bank's envoy to Rwanda Mr Denny Kalyalya praised Rwanda to be an example of all the countries in terms of using granted support. In his word, he said

"The things you are doing in Rwanda are not only seen here but also outside, your achievements make us proud, you have made progress and it this makes sense to support this progress."

This midget country of a thousand hills in the East Africa, is notable among others to be operating the most effective community based health insurance. The formulation of this community based health insurance is meant to facilitate easy access to health care nationwide. Rwandans particularly those from informal and rural economies are praising this scheme. Through risk pooling mechanism of this program, every Rwandan can get access to health care. However, not every Rwandan can afford the annual subscription to this scheme. Through our non profit, we are facilitating a community of poor in the outskirts of Kigali- Rwanda to benefit from this wonderful policy.

Subscription to the Rwanda's community based health insurance (also called mutuelle de sante) is voluntary and its premiums are priced and payable according to individuals' wealth status. Some media outlets in Rwanda reports of the poor being forced to pay their health insurances, but Rwanda's prime minister has ever since promised to address the issue. The scheme is highly subsidised by the central government itself and through her development partners.

Every year, improvements are being made on this program to respond to discovered glitches. Clearly, It is not a problem free, but what can be referred to as a good work in progress. The ministry of health in Rwanda shows how health indicators are being improved and there is a general rating that the scheme has helped all citizens get access to care irrespective of how much they earn. That said, there are still some pockets of communities who are still unable to buy their yearly premiums like the Cyaruzinge (formerly Bwiza) community which we work with. Each year and every day, families of this community are confronted with many competing ends to keep their families alive, getting food, water, clothing and sanitation is not at its best either. Saving for healthcare has not taken ground for this community live on hand to mouth basis. This assertion does not signify that this community does not plan for their future, but due to many competing ends to meet their day-to-day life they remain penniless. All that said, I personally consider them to be the most sophisticated economists. We are encouraged by the desire and local initiatives established by this community to develop themselves, we will continue working with them to achieve their goals. Till now we have been busy helping this community to purchase their health insurances and helping their children with school supplies needed on a yearly basis.

Some of the Bwiza community members showing their health insurance cards

Broadly speaking, we are aware that helping this community with health insurances, does not entirely remove their barriers to accessing health care. Difficulties remain for if a member of a family falls sick, he/she still have to pay an out of pocket equal to 10% of the care they receive at the local clinic, a demand which is most of the times remains latent. However, the solidarity and camaraderie among this community is playing a key role in supporting each other in case one falls ill and does not have immediate money to cover the costs of services. We are busy working with the community on a feasible plan to finding the lasting solution to this particular case so that the community members can be able to purchase their insurance on their own and become able to pay for services when they fall sick. I am optimistic that we will see some real change in this community. 

 

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An evolving community

In a previous post I detailed how the village we are supporting with access to health care and education in Rwanda was relocated to a new locality in better housing conditions, and how it is presently perceived to be on a right path of prosperity. Looking back where this community comes from, a lot has been achieved and the Rwandan local government should take credit for this even though there remain many unresolved difficulties faced by this community. 

Through a community action, communities of Kigali city came together to help indigent people of Bwiza acquire new housings. As a result, each family and every single parent of the village who previously lived in pitiable dwelling received a better brick walled with typical shiny tin roofed house. At the end of this action, 50 families benefited from this scheme.

Community gathering in former village of Bwiza (left photo)- Chief's house in the background.

Same village in their new village (Right photo)- see their new homes in the background 

Marie, a single mother of three was among those who benefited a house. The acquiring of a house meant that it was time for her to live independent of her extended family of 8 which all shared a house of 3 dark tiny cubicles. At the age of 23 with 3 children, and not having any predictable source of income it was time for Marie to actively play the mother role and taking care of her children in her own home. Marie has to make sure that feeds her three children; which is always complicated to achieve and subject to a lot of uncertainties. 

Like any other person of her village, we are supporting her and her children to acquire their annual subscription to health insurance, and one of her son and other children of the village are able to attend school because we are helping them. We are doing this with hope that our small interventions will help the community unlock their potentials to develop themselves.

Three months ago, when we were following up the progress of students in the program which we jointly initiated with the village, we learnt that Marie’s son (Hakizimana) was not attending school. Village volunteers informed us that Marie and her children were nowhere to be seen in the village except for the few speculations of their whereabouts. Seemingly, Marie and her children, left their gifted home following a theft of 5 kg of beans and a pagne (which I will explain its importance in their life shortly). The theft happened in the night when they were asleep. Like I mentioned before, this community is constrained economy and so 5kg of beans is hardly to come by for many in Marie's village and the reason it is taken to be a valuable commodity. To get all these, Marie might have worked very hard and by hard, I mean hard sweaty job! In an event that followed this theft, Marie run out of options to feed herself and the children, and without any guarantee that she may get some work to do. She found herself being forced to free her home to a friend a distance away from the village.

Marie is looking at her new fabric which we helped her buy

Marie's pagne which she wears when she is going out of their community was all taken! Partly, this meant that her interaction with the larger communities around them was to some degree affected. I am saying this because, when you visit around the markets or other social places in Rwanda, you notice the majority of people are dressed-up and looking sharp! This external neatness however has nothing in common with their financial capabilities, in most cases it is a contrast. In some other villages and maybe in some towns and cities, people are still borrowing clothing if they are going somewhere outside their community. People do not want to be judged as poor from the way they present themselves even though in their minds they might be questioning themselves how they will survive that day. 

Marie with her children on their day they came back in the village

Despite of Marie's community being relocated in a new locality with better housing, life remains a struggle for each member of the village, who still show little collective initiatives to solve their problems. The few projects which they are collaboratively working on, have not paid dividends fast enough to give them confidence. The fact that Marie left the village even without approaching her own family members for help is an indication that everyone is for him/her self. Well there is a saying “every man for himself and God for us all” , I began to think it was applicable in this circumstance.

We (I mean our non profit) believe that the community we work with can find ways getting around their problems, and there is a huge potential as we are continually learning how the poorest make the choices they do to live their life. That said, we did not let Marie disappearance slip out of our hands. Recalling the events In 2010, there was a teenager girl who disappeared from the village while we were in a process of enumerating all school going pupils who had dropped out of school for either lack of materials or fees. The disappeared girl showed up a year later pregnant.

Fearing of the worst, but not knowing what could happen to Marie with her three lovely children, we used all the contacts we could get in the village to trace Marie’s' whereabouts. When we got a lead location, we facilitated transportation for an individual from her village to go where she had taken “refuge” and talk to her if she could consider coming back into her village. We succeeded in this aspect and we helped her and her children come back.

Because Marie is mute and deaf, she is commonly known as the “mute” in her village, we believe she is more at risk among her already vulnerable community for she cannot communicate well with the rest in her village. We have helped her re-gain what was stolen in her house, helped her buying padlocks to reinforce security on her doors. Now that we managed to bring Marie and her family back into their own house in their village, we cannot claim to have solved underlying problems, it was rather a short term alternative of the situation and we take it as a moral obligation. Having said that, we are trying to keep our energies and resources by focusing on the two projects in the village.

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Polepole = Slowly

Eddy went to Rwanda to visit the projects we support there. The beneficiaries of our educational  projects are increasing their school attendence! They are proud and happy to have all the scholastic materials they need for each school year. We are always thankful to the sponsors of our projects because, through them, we have been able to fulfill this lasting commitment. The on-ground implementation of this project has been running efficiently, as most of the field volunteers working on this project are beneficiaries themselves. The on-ground team follows up on the kids in their homes, and also with their parents. They liase with the school to ensure that they attend every day. Through this kind of collaboration and cooperation we have been getting valuable feedback from the beneficiaries, which has been useful in refining and confirming that the support we give them works in an efficient manner. 

Some sponsored children saying- Thank you

The children supported on this project are studying hard and their efforts are paying off as we have recorded an improvement in their exam scores at the end of each academic year. Supporting this education project also includes basic health improvement, whereby the entire community to which the children belong benefit from health insurance. This kind of all inclusive strategy is useful in reducing the number of kids absent from school due to illness. The short term objective of this project is to help the kids acquire basic arithmetic and literacy skills. We will then build on those basic skills to further expand and support their educational opportunities and life skills training.

            There is a general feeling amongst the children supported through this program that they are loved. But they equally do not want to take the genorosity of their sponsors from the West for granted.

            At the inception of this project, we learned that even though education is free in Rwanda, many people still find it hard to cover the basic costs needed to enroll in school. This is what we have been attempting to address since 2010. In the community supported by our project, the number of pupils attending school rose from 6 in 2010, to 41 students total in 2013, of which 4 are now in secondary schools. This achievement is significant and we consider it a major success, given the conditions and the extent of poverty in which these people live. Individuals from the community we support do not have enough resources to meet their daily needs; a factor which has an adverse effect on the kids' concentration levels during class. The government of Rwanda is pulling all the stops to lift many people up out of poverty, a goal which seems to be attainable so far. According to recent World Bank reports and the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda about 1 million Rwandans have been raised up out of poverty in a span of 5 years. According to the World Bank Publications: Doing Business report of 2011, Rwanda was the top reformer in 2010. This is an indication that the country is an increasingly conducive environment for foreign investiments and determined to generate wealth. It ranks 52nd globally, the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa.

            Despite these accomplishments of the Rwandan Government, there are still many people and communities in Rwanda who live in poverty. They still need our support and cooperation. Our project started helping out these communities, hoping to give their children access to a proper education. We believe this is essential for their future social and economic growth. As UNESCO puts it, “Not only is education important in reducing poverty, it is also a key to wealth creation”. We have no doubts that we are on the right track!  Our work mesh with the Rwandan Government's strategic plans of forming a modern knowledge base, a competitive economy, and the development of the nation's human resources. We are always interested in hearing from individuals, associations, or companies who share our passion for educating the poor and vulnerable children of Rwanda. If you want to lend a helping hand, you can always get in touch with us or help spread the word by forwading this post to people who might consider becoming a VZW Mama na Mtoto supporter.

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Mothers’ health is improving across Africa

 According to UNFPA, only six countries (Rwanda, Botswana, Niger, Malawi, Zambia and Burkina Faso) have met the target of allocating at least 15 percent of their annual budget to health, a goal set at an African summit on HIV/AIDS held in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2000.
 Follow the link to read more..

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And a paycheck!

Good news! 't Stekske pupils have raised money in supporting our education project in Rwanda. The news featured in Het Belang Van Lommel, follow to read (in dutch). 

Our education project is helping children from poor families in Rwanda overcome barriers of enrolling into schools. While doing this we are constantly encouraging more girls enroll in schools because it delays the age at which girls in the villages get married off as well as the onset of childbearing. 
We believe in education particularly of girls will have an impact on improving their livelihood and they can grow up into responsible citizens of their country.."If you educate a girl, you educate the nation".  This donation has come in time when it was needed and shows that not only the teachers of the school but also parents of these children in Lommel realise the importance of contributing to someones' else future. We are always looking out there for more support like this and therefore a big thank you to 't Stekske! For more information about this project visit our website.

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Twitter, facebook,Google+ all coming soon!

We are taking a new twist in joining social media platforms with hope we can spread more awareness to many on what we do.

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Welcome to our blog

Hello everybody, and welcome to the blog section of our site! We have created this blog to keep you informed on what’s happening with our work in Rwanda and to share our experiences from the field.

Visitors will be able to read the blog, but only logged in members are able to post and contribute comments. Name identification will be visible with your post.

We hope you will enjoy reading our blog and please feel free to comment .

For more information visit www.mamanamtoto.org or e-mail us on rwanda@mamanamtoto.org

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