After a good (?) run and some breakfast, we got ready to head to Bugarama. This was the furthest site we are visiting this trip - 1.5 hour drive on bumpy road, so lots of 'Rwandan Dancing'! This is also the sister parish to Roger and Alayne's church, Immanuel, in Vancouver, so we were leaving Roger and Alayne there for a few days to visit.
When there, we met with a number of representatives from various associations. We heard numerous testimonies of how families have been helped. In this area a number of pigs were provided by Immanuel Church a number of years ago, then the area was brought in under the Food Security program to lend support. One testimony was from a lady called Anastasia, she is the president of one of the many associations. The pig she was given had three litters through it's lifetime which produced 19 piglets. She distributed most of these to different members of the association, she kept one and raised it up to adulthood. Then she sold it at the market and used part of that money to buy land as well as pay for school fees for her children. She feels that they are seeing significant improvement throughout the association. Through the manure produced from the pigs they have better soil quality and their animal husbandry has improved thanks to the addition of the para-veterinarian, Gratien.
When there, we met with a number of representatives from various associations. We heard numerous testimonies of how families have been helped. In this area a number of pigs were provided by Immanuel Church a number of years ago, then the area was brought in under the Food Security program to lend support. One testimony was from a lady called Anastasia, she is the president of one of the many associations. The pig she was given had three litters through it's lifetime which produced 19 piglets. She distributed most of these to different members of the association, she kept one and raised it up to adulthood. Then she sold it at the market and used part of that money to buy land as well as pay for school fees for her children. She feels that they are seeing significant improvement throughout the association. Through the manure produced from the pigs they have better soil quality and their animal husbandry has improved thanks to the addition of the para-veterinarian, Gratien.
Many of the associations are using profit from the pigs to help pay for health insurance for their members. They did outline their biggest challenge and that was access to medication for their animals. They have to go far to markets to access them, and even then they are unsure of the quality. The other challenge they mentioned was the need for more information and training on animal husbandry and agriculture.
We had a great lunch, and then we said good bye to Roger and Alayne till Sunday and started the long, bumpy ride home!
Late this afternoon we had some visits from a couple of our young friends. We sat and talked with them for awhile - their curiosity is wonderful, and their English is really improving! Then we had another drop in from our friend and student in our secondary program, Eric! He is pictured below with Rachael - much taller than he was when we first met!!
We had a great lunch, and then we said good bye to Roger and Alayne till Sunday and started the long, bumpy ride home!
Late this afternoon we had some visits from a couple of our young friends. We sat and talked with them for awhile - their curiosity is wonderful, and their English is really improving! Then we had another drop in from our friend and student in our secondary program, Eric! He is pictured below with Rachael - much taller than he was when we first met!!
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