Notes from Rwanda: A Country of Hills and Hope

Notes from Rwanda: A Country of Hills and Hope

By Mary Martin Niepold, Founder

Rwanda. This past week found me back in the hills of Rwanda and even more in love with this country’s undulating beauty and its caring people. Rwandans are touched as deeply by sorrow as by love. Today, they are driven by their determination to have a country where all people are united and where labels no longer divide.

I first visited Rwanda last summer to determine if initiating a program for African grandmothers here was possible, and I was moved by the beauty of the country which must also harbor such a harrowing past.  On the streets of its capital, Kigali, a visitor knows that anyone who is more than 16 years old has most likely seen horrors no human should ever have to have witnessed.

Nonetheless, Rwanda today is a country that embraces the best for its people. Its president, Paul Kagame, insists on two things from Rwandans: That whatever they do must be serious and correct.

This philosophy is a model that we have adopted for our programs for African grandmothers caring for grandchildren orphaned by AIDS.  In Rwanda, we partner with Gahaya Links, which makes breathtaking jewelry, baskets and bags for clients ranging from Oprah to Anthropologie, Kate Spade, and Federated Department stores.

We are fortunate that Gahaya, under the leadership of its co-founder, Joy Ndungutse, trains our grandmothers in bead making.  In April of this year, 15 TNP grandmothers spent three weeks learning the craft of making paper beads that are then fashioned into bracelets and necklaces.  Gahaya purchases the beads that are of top quality from our grandmothers.

When we gathered with our grandmothers last week, we joined them on a hillside near their small village high in the hills outside of Kigali. They were jubilant, and they were so proud to show us their new blouses and dresses that they have been able to purchase since their training.

“Now we have new clothes,” said Budensiyana.

“Now our grandchildren have rice and meat, and we can get our grandchildren school supplies and medical help if we need to,” added Anastasia, another grandmother.  Her young grandson, “Moises,” (Moses) arrived in a new jacket and small necktie.  Sitting together on the hillside, he and his grandmother rocked and sang together as the sun began to drop.

All of the women beamed.  The children laughed.

“We are happy. Please tell people in America that we are happy, that we are very grateful for their help.”

All of the women looked so much more joyful than when we first met them. Today they have hope, so important in the face of another level of suffering unique to their being Rwandan.

Besides trying to sustain their families as farmers, almost every one of our grandmothers is a widow, and all but two are genocide widows. Their courage is indomitable.

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One of our hopes for Rwanda is to open a Pre-School Center, similar to our centers in the Kibera slums of Nairobi, and we hope that others will be moved to help us open TNP’s first Rwandan Pre-School Center where grandmothers will work to help take care of the school’s young children.

“Reconciliation Village” is a small village of 45 homes about an hour and a half’s drive from Kigali.  There are three such villages throughout Rwanda where Hutus and Tutsis live side by side.  The villages have been built by Prison Fellowship Rwanda, a NGO under the direction of Reverend Deo Gashagaza. Many of the Hutus here are ex-prisoners.  Matthew Sendengeya is one.

Matthew, a Hutu, stood just a few feet from Janet, a Tutsi.  She lost all but three of her family members in the genocide of 1994. Matthew said that he participated in the killing of at least 45 Tutsis during the genocide.

Today, Matthew helps take care of Janet’s children.  Janet buys groceries for Matthew.

Matthew met Rev. Deo while he was a prisoner, and a few months after Matthew’s release, his life changed.  “I turned to God,” he said.  “I did not believe it was ever possible to sit with a Tutsi, and now we live together and share everything.”

During our visit, we also learned that there is only one thing missing in their Reconciliation Village – a Pre-School for approximately 30 young children from the village.

The Nyanya Project came to Rwanda to check on the progress of our grandmothers who had been trained in the spring.  We also wondered if there would ever be a way that a Pre-School might be possible in Rwanda.

When we met Rev. Deo, he asked us to please come see one of their Reconciliation Villages. When Matthew and Janet finished telling us their story, we knew where we were needed.

And so it is in Africa…love is possible in so many, many ways.

Photos: Maddie Brandenburger

One Grandmother at a Time

Notes from Mwanza: One Grandmother at a Time
By Mary Martin Niepold, Founder

July 04, 2010.  We have been in Africa for five days, and every day here reminds me of how blessed we are in America– and how much there is still to do for the brave grandmothers in Africa.

Known as “nyanyas,” their need is great. But every time I hear one of their stories, I know that The Nyanya Project has chosen the best way to help change their future.

“Now we have hope,” said Anna, who finished a year’s training in business skills in Nariobi in April.  “Thank you.”

By teaching skills, TNP has now successfully assisted more than 200 grandmothers earn more income than they have ever known. Consequently, their grandchildren can count on basic needs like school, food and medicine.  One generation is changing the future for another generation.

For our first two days here, Maddie, a student intern from Wake Forest University, and Linda, a new volunteer from North Carolina, joined me in visiting eight of our Nairobi grandmothers whom we have trained.  Every woman said that her life was better and to please thank everyone in America for remembering them and their families.

In Nairobi, our grandmothers now earn up to $30 per week from their small vegetable stands.  Before our training, they earned $5 per week.

At the Pre School Center we opened last July in Nairobi’s Kibera slums, progress came in the form of 40 small children who sang, clapped, squealed, recited numbers and repeated the entire alphabet and new English words.

“Ca,” they said in unison.  “Ca, ca.” “At.”  “Ca, ca.” “At.”
“Cat.”

Eunice, one of our grandmothers who is now 71, learns alongside her three orphaned grandchildren when she comes to the Center to help with the childrens’ lunches. Her grandchildren attend free because Eunice works there.

Eunice walked proudly to the spelling chart on the wall.  “Cat,” “boy,” “bell,” she said perfectly, row after row of words.  The little ones clapped their hands when she finished. Eunice beamed.

“Every night my grandchildren teach me new words,” she said.  “They also correct me.”

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For the last three days, we have been in Mwanza, Tanzania, to visit with our newest group of grandmothers, four remarkable women who are learning business skills from our partner, the Tanzanian Home Economics Association, who were recommended to us by CARE International.

Here in Tanzania’s second largest city, the surroundings are like an exotic, lush landscape from a planet far away.  Huge boulders erupt from the land forming gigantic abstract rock formations.  All around them are banana trees, bougainvillea and the dark waters of Lake Victoria.

One village after another dots the landscape just outside of the city, and many of the villages hold simple concrete houses that have been built around the boulders.  In one of them, Rosa lives.

Rosa Mabele, age 59, is one of our newest grandmothers of AIDS orphans in training. She lives here with four orphaned grandchildren and three children.  Her husband died four years ago and today she supports her family of seven dependents by making “mandaazi” (doughnuts) and selling them and chai (tea) from a small concrete room next to her house.

After only two months of training, Rosa has been able to triple the amount of mandaazi she prepares and sells.  Because she can see profit for the first time, she now has another dream.  She says her next “tea shop” will be bigger. It will be next to Kenyatta Avenue, a major road down the hill from her house, and she will employ two other women to help her.

When Rosa says this, it doesn’t sound like a dream.  It sounds like a reality that has already happened, a reality made from determination, training, and a short span of time just waiting for Rosa to choose her next location.

There may be as many as 18 million grandmothers across Africa who are raising grandchildren after burying sons and daughters to AIDS.  TNP cannot reach them all, but one grandmother at a time, we really are changing the future for entire families. We see this every time one of our grandmothers says “asante sana” (thank you very much) to us.

We say “asante sana” to them. They show us what courage, devotion and love look like.

Photos:  Maddie Brandenburger