Day 5: Cyvugiza Food Security Site!!

Today we drove to Cyivugiza, one of the Food Security Sites. The leader of this site is Pastor Vincent. We have regularly visited this site every time we come to Rwanda as we are consistently amazed at the wonderful changes that occur at this site. This is proof that forward thinking, planning and lots of hard work can bring about some amazing changes in people's lives. Pastor Vincent's main goal is to eliminate poverty in the area and he is well on the way to achieving this goal while motivating many people of his Parish in the process!!

Pictured above is Pastor Vincent with one of the projects in the Parish. They are harvesting Irish potatoes and storing some of them to obtain superior seeds to sell. It is difficult to find good Irish potato seeds and so it is in high demand.
We traveled down a very long hill to a valley where he showed us all the land that they have cleared, by hand no less, and the crops that they have planted. When we first visited Cyivugiza, this land was primarily treed and not usable. In 6 years, they have almost cleared all the land and have planted different crops. See the photos below.

They are also introducing wheat into the area which is a new crop type for them.
They are also planning on building a guesthouse in the future and are going to raise revenue for this through the sale of trees that they have planted on 2.5 hectares of land.

They are also planting several new chapels in the area, nursery schools, and a new building that will house an internet style cafe, a tailoring business and a church hall for social functions.

Cyivugiza has come so far ahead from the area we visited seven years ago. It went from a very poor, AID's ridden population to one of the most impressive parishes we have seen in our travels in the Kigeme Diocese. 

Tomorrow- we will visit some of the Kigeme co-operatives as well as see some of the post secondary students that are sponsored through Kids for Kids. Stay tuned.