From 05th to 07th December 2018, under the financial support from CBM-Germany, NUDOR has conducted the training of Local leaders from Districts of NYARUGURU, MUSANZE, NGORORERO ad KAYONZA on VSLA (Village Saving and Loans Associations) methodology. Different local leaders attended the training at their respective district office. The goal of the training was to make district and sector officials together with other stakeholders understand NUDOR methodology of forming and developing VSLAs .
( CASE: NYARUGURU District on 07 December)
In partnership with Nyaruguru District, NUDOR has organized one day training on NUDOR VSLG methodology to the district officials in charge of social affairs, employment development and sector officials: Social affairs, Sacco’s managers and sector NCPD coordinators all from the four sectors (KIBEHO-CYAHINDA-MUNINI-RUSENGE) that NUDOR is implementing the Livelihood program since January 2018. The training has taken place at Nyaruguru district.
District Executive Secretary, RUZIMA Serge has officially opened the training where he took time to thank NUDOR on its contribution to promote the livelihood of persons with disabilities living in Nyaruguru district especial he emphasized on the project: “Promoting social economic situations of persons with disabilities in Rwanda” that NUDOR has started implementing since January 2018 where MUDOR is working with PWDs through forming the VSLGs.
“The PWDs are achieving more because they are working together by being able to pay their MUSA, changing their negative mindset, increasing their productive assets because of being in the groups of saving and loaning, we need to copy this NUDOR approach to other citizen of Nyaruguru district to find solutions that our district is facing like MUSA, human security issues, etc…” said RUZIMA Serge.
By concluding , the District Executive Secretary thanked NUDOR for training and encouraged the participants to follow and go back to put into practice for betterment change of the life of PWDs.
Nyaruguru District Executive Secretary Mr. RUZIMA Serge during official opening of the training
More to that, after welcoming the staff of NUDOR, the training facilitator Mr. Simon Pierre MUHIRE, NUDOR Senior Business Mentor (SBM) has explained the achievements of livelihood program where 2187 PWDs have been mobilized and 78 VSLGs have been formed in all 4 sectors. Financially the PWDs have saved 20,576,335 frw, the persons with are encouraged to use small loans in IGAs from their respective VSLGs and they have taken 10,193,800 for agriculture activities and 8,362,800 for small business. Through these small loans the life of PWDs has been changed positively by providing the first basic needs by running different small business like: selling foods, delivering airtime services, agriculture activities as well as contributing to their community development. The NUDOR VSLG has also increase the self confidence among the PWDs, PWDs are participating in community events as well as their hygiene and sanitation condition.
Nyaruguru District and Sector Officials trained on VSLA methodology
By concluding NUDOR Representative Eric thanks the participants for participating actively in the training on livelihood program and requested them to implicate into practice the knowledge gained for enhancing better the livelihood of PWDs. District representative thanks how the participants have shared the skills and participated in the training. He requested the participants to put into practice the new skills gained for betterment change of life of PWDs and finding solutions that community members face in general.
More photos from other Districts:
Group photo after training at NGORORERO District
NGORORERO District Vice Mayor AFSO has officially opened the training
Jeanne MUKAZIMPAKA from Abishyizehamwe VSLGs, Muko cell, Jali Sector, Gasabo district
After losing her leg to a landmine, Jeanne was stigmatised and left begging on the streets of the Rwandan capital Kigali to support herself. But with the support of a CBM programme, Jeanne, now 55, has overcome these hardships to become a respected businesswoman.
“I wished I had died”
It was the Rwandan genocide of 1994 that began the misery which spread across Jeanne’s life. She was on her way home to her parents’ house with her 3-year-old daughter, Beatha.
“The area was a war zone,” Jeanne recollects. “Many people were fleeing the on-going fighting despite the presence of landmines.” She stepped on one of them hidden in the ground.
It’s a miracle she and Beatha survived, but Jeanne lost her right leg which had to be amputated; and her daughter has experienced mental health problems since the explosion.
“At that time I wished I had died. I stayed with the Red Cross for approximately a year,” Jeanne told us. “Then I went to the Central Hospital of Kigali for 3 years for physiotherapy, where I also received a prosthesis.”
During those terrible times in Rwanda, Africa, Jeanne felt she had no choice but to end her marriage, leaving her divorced and penniless.
“I opted to go to my parents’ home,” says Jeanne. “After leaving Central Hospital of Kigali I had nothing to support my family, no money to buy food. So I started begging in the streets of Kigali.” What made it worse, she remembers, is that “People used to stigmatise me, calling me a ‘kimuga’, meaning something like a broken jug, someone who is nothing.”
Never a “broken jug” again
These humiliating experiences only came to an end when Jeanne heard about the NUDOR and CBM supported Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) in Gasabo district, her home area.
“I only stopped begging in 2015, when I heard about VSLA. It is better for me to take a loan than to go and beg.”
After four weeks as a member of the savings group, which helps people with disabilities, she was able to ask for an advance to grow and sell tomatoes. Members discussed the idea and, to Jeanne’s relief, agreed.
“I produce tomatoes with the loan and am able to buy pesticides”, says Jeanne proudly. “I have so many tomatoes. I can also use the loan to hire manpower to cultivate the field. I know the yield will be enough to get a good return and pay off the loan.”
CBM building livelihoods
Each savings group in Rwanda registers with CBM’s partner NUDOR, the National Union of Disability Organisations in Rwanda. “People with disabilities often face huge difficulties when they ask a bank for a loan”, explains Emile Cadet Vuningabo from NUDOR. “Many bank employees just don’t know what disabled humans can achieve when given a chance,” he says.
As well as collecting money from savings groups to transfer into bank accounts,
NUDOR supports the groups in many other ways. Their mentors for example, spread business knowledge by coaching and training members of the savings groups which complements advice given within the groups.
The future can be better
Jeanne’s life is still not easy. Her daughter Beatha, at 25 years old, continues to have problems while her mother, Valerie, has a physical disability affecting her knees. Jeanne herself needs a new prosthesis, which is very expensive. But she is optimistic. Jeanne plans to buy a goat with the profits from her tomato crop and expand her farming activities further to buy the new prosthesis.
Her self-confidence and pride are returning. She has for some time been the Chairperson of the savings group.
“I will continue with the savings group programme,” she says. “Now, people call me a person with a disability, not someone who is nothing. Now, the future is better.”
