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Poverty and Need: A lesson from Rwanda

Poverty and Need: A lesson from Rwanda

Last updated on: February 4, 2017 at 11:47 am by Father Pablo Migone

Poverty and Need: A lesson from Rwanda 2017-02-04T11:47:53-05:00 Father Pablo Migone

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We arrived to the village of Kagano in western Rwanda after a long journey from the capital of Kigali. It had been a lengthy day of traveling first to the District Office of Nyabihu for a meeting with district officials followed by continued journeying deeper into the countryside. Due to unexpected delays, we were unable to have lunch as planned. As our small bus entered the village up through a battered road, many children ran next to us yelling, “abazungu, abazungu.” We soon learned that what we interpreted as words of greeting were actually descriptive words. The excited children were calling out “white people, white people.” A group of white people representing Catholic Relief Services (CRS) had arrived to the village, and since it was four in the afternoon and we had not eaten lunch, the white people were very hungry.

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As officials explained the Crops for Health Project, a partnership between the Nyabihu District, the Catholic Diocese of Nyndo and CRS to increase nutritional standards, scores of malnourished children were enjoying a green mush made primarily from beans, small fish, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. The children sat on the laps of the many women present, and across from them sat the hungry white people. I was so hungry that I would have loved trying the green mush which the children ate with glimmering eyes and smiling faces.

As this scene unfolded, a verse from Book of Samuel in the Hebrew Scriptures came to mind, “the well-fed hire themselves out for bread, while the hungry batten on spoil. The barren wife bears seven sons, while the mother of many languishes” (1 Samuel 2,5). As I sat in the village of Kagano, irony enveloped my senses like fog that descends upon a traveler. The malnourished children ate until being filled while the hungry CRS delegation watched them devour the food. The ones who supposedly had plenty were hungry, while the hungry were satisfied. The ones who presumably had everything did not, and the needy had their fill.

A great lesson unraveled before my eyes. Every human person, even one in great need, contributes to the good of society. The children of Kagano offered excitement and playfulness. The women dressed in beautiful colored dresses exuded hope and joy as they danced and sung. The men proudly displayed great knowledge of innovative farming techniques to increase food productivity. Charitable and developmental programs do not only improve national statistics, but change individual lives – both the lives of the beneficiaries and benefactors. The personal dignity of beneficiaries is affirmed, recognizing that in their need, they point to the poverty of the benefactors. As I watched the children savor green mush, my hungry belly became a vivid reminder of my own poverty and need.

The western Rwandan district of Nyabihu has a population of 295,000 and 90% of its citizens live by subsistence farming. A limited amount of farmland means that on average each family only has 1.2 acres of land to live and farm. A crowded district, there are about 1,376 people per square mile, 65,855 households, and 39.6% of them live below the poverty line. With these demographics, the greatest challenges faced by the district are food insecurity and malnutrition, both which result in the shocking statistic that 59% of the district’s children are stunted.

Stunting is the direct consequence of long-term nutritional deprivation and results in hindered physical growth, delayed mental development, poor school performance, and reduced intellectual capacity. When a stunted child reaches adulthood, he or she will be severely limited, thus negatively impacting the overall achievement possible by individuals and society at large. Rwanda faced a national 51% stunting rate of its children in 2011, but through diligent work it has been reduced to 38%. The Nyabihu District however still faces the highest child stunting rate in the country at 59%. These percentages can only be decreased through long-term, persistent attention to malnourished children and those in charge of their nutrition. This is the purpose of the Crops for Health Project which CRS funds and provides expertise for in Rwanda.

The Crops for Health Program is designed to improve food security, heighten nutritional status, and aid in the economic development of families with children under the age of five or at risk of malnutrition. It promotes traditional crops that have been neglected due to a preference for cash crops. It introduces farmers to crops with a high nutritional value, assists them in diversifying their harvest, and teaches innovative agricultural techniques to maximize limited available land. These in turn improve nutrition, food security, and the livelihood of thousands of families.

The program first identified 7,320 at risk families and divided them into 244 working groups. In order to assist them, Crops for Health trained 488 nutrition leaders at a hospital and fourteen health centers, distributed cooking demonstration kits with basic cooking utensils, and gave small farm animals such as chickens and rabbits to one thousand farmers. Each working group received agricultural tools, seeds and training in new farming techniques.

CRS assisted in the creation of Saving Internal Lending Communities in the working groups where farmers are encouraged to save money in a community fund. This not only promotes saving, but allows farmers to borrow money from the common fund at a community agreed-upon interest rate. During our visit to Kagano, farmers proudly presented a large wooden chest locked with three padlocks. Three villagers brought keys and simultaneously unlocked the padlocks revealing the saved money inside. Everybody clapped proudly. A diocesan official shared with me the accounting log of Kagano’s community fund. I was baffled when I realized that most families made saving deposits at increments of 50 Rwandan Francs, or about 7 US cents. This amount of money is considered substantial enough to make a deposit into the bank.

Father Jean Pierre, the Director of Caritas of the Diocese of Nyndo shared that as a child, he ate at his school thanks to the generosity of CRS. “CRS was present in rebuilding the country after the genocide, especially providing agricultural tools. We began life again thanks to Caritas and CRS which provided seeds to restart our livelihood.” Many years have passed since the 1994 genocide, and CRS continues to positively impact the lives of thousands of Rwandans. Poverty cannot be addressed without addressing food insecurity and malnutrition, so the Crops for Health initiative strikes at the root of the problem and does not provide just a band aid solution. The work of CRS in Rwanda and throughout the world continues to transform lives as profound institutional change is facilitated. Crops for Health not only feeds hungry children, but by teaching farming techniques and providing financial stability, assists families to emerge from poverty into a stable, more dignified way of life.

The children of Kagano followed us back to the bus at the entrance of the village. They closely observed us keep our balance while crossing a creek on a wooden plank. They ran through the trees as we carefully followed the cleared path down the hill. They cheered and ran along the dirt road as we left the village on the small, white bus. I may never return to Kagano, but I will never forget the lesson its villagers taught me: every human person, even one in great need, contributes to the good of society. My hungry belly reminded me of our common humanity and of my own poverty and need.

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