Environment

Small miracles!

The word Uburumbuke simply means fertility loosely translated. No wonder, when it was translated into English for one of our visitors, it was mistaken at first for a family planning initiative until she had walked for two hours through a forest of young trees under the July scorching sun did she realize it meant something more than fertility. Uburumbuke as a kinyarwanda word means a lot of other things ranging from fertility to profit or bumper harvest depending on what one is talking about but in the case of the Rusumo based association it actually means profit.

The Uburumbuke association of Rusumo in Kibungo province is one of those associations formed as a result of LWF/WS Rwanda mobilization and sensitization on environment conservation, protection and rehabilitation of the environment especially for those communities that were settled on marginal lands in new settlements. The association brings together two hundred members, one hundred and twenty of whom are women while the remaining eighty members are men. The association formed in 2002, aimed at rehabilitating the environment in this district. Specific activities chosen were to regenerate vegetation cover through tree planting. The association was allocated large tracts of waste land where they could transplant seedlings prepared in their tree nursery.

According to the president of the association Boneri, many trees were being cut down for fire wood which resulted in disruption of rainfall patterns, this in turn meant failure of crops and loss of income. “The community in this area was threatened” adds Boneri “there was persistent drought and most people left the area in search of food, it was critical and it threatened our lives, so we decided to do something.” Of course the pressure on land for agriculture and the heightened demand for fire wood which is the major source of energy in rural Rwanda demanded more concrete solutions to support such initiative. “We thought about an all-round support to this group’s initiative” says Francis Bushayija the LWF community development officer for Kibungo “the cause of their problems and we were ready to assist them deal with the problem in the long term, but there were short term consequences too that needed solving such as food shortage and malnutrition, so we embarked on an all round support.” The association was assisted to establish a tree nursery, LWF provided seeds, plastic tubes for the nursery, training in nursery management and reforestation. But the association also needed to engage in other income generating activities to ensure that when the trees were mature enough to be harvested, they were there to enjoy the fruits of their labour . Through their own initiatives, they started bee-keeping using locally available materials to make bee-hives and used the wood-lots as location for their bee-hives. Using the woodlots had several advantages, first the bees in the bee-hive would protect the woodlots from intruders and animals that could destroy young trees, and secondly flowerings from the trees would keep a steady supply of pollen for bees to make honey. They then approached LWF Kibungo project for further support in modernizing bee-keeping and were trained first in production of modern bee-hives and then in bee-keeping farming, management and production. The next training will be on managing their new organisation, transforming it into a production and marketing cooperative and linking it with other cooperatives in the region.

Since the association started, they have planted more than eighty hectares of trees covering of the waste land and have more than two hundred bee-hives in the woodlot. They have received citation from the Ministry of Environment for their efforts and initiative in the rehabilitation of environment. In the words of the Minister for Environment “no matter how small the initiative may seem, it has its miracles and miracles are never small.” 

The magic of a fuel saving stove!

A warm smile, a twinkle in her eyes and aheartly laugh, there is no better way to describe Domina. A thirty seven year old lady resident of Gesenyi Sector in Cyrubare district of Kibungo province. Domina and her husband Denis earn their living from farming on their small plot. Domina and her husband are among Rwandans settled in marginal land after the 1994 genocide. They returned to Rwanda from Burundi where she was born to her refugee parents thirty sevens years ago. One of the major problems thes faced after settling in this area was fire wood. They traveled long distances to fetch firewood with the ever present danger of wild animals that stray from the near by Akagera national park. “It became increasingly difficult over the years for the community to obtain fire wood and as time went by we became more desperate” says Domina “we spent up to fifteen thousand francs on firewood every month to put food on the table.”

In 2002, LWF/WS Rwanda launched an environment rehabilitation, conservation and protection campaign. Through the campaign, local residents were mobilized and sensitized on environment rehabilitation and protection. Through the campaign, Domina and a few others were trained as trainers in construction of fuel saving stoves that could be built using locally available materials such as clay and earthen bricks. “It was not easy to begin with” says Francis Bushayija “the community did not take it seriously despite the high cost of energy in the area.” However, a few households constructed the stoves and LWF supported vulnerable households to construct model stoves which others could copy. One of the benefits was visible, the multiplier effect was amazing. In one year the fuel saving stovesconstructed in the area had increased tenfold from the original sixty that were constructed.

In just one month, Domina begun to realize the benefits of the energy saving stove. In that month, she only spent two thousand francs on firewood. As she continued using the fuel saving stove she realized she could improve on it. Instead of cooking with one pot at a time, she could cook with two pots thus using the same amount of energy to cook two dishes at the same time. As she did this, popularity for the fuel saving stove was gaining momentum and she was busy training other women and even men in her village on how to construct a fuel saving stove, she made further improvements and added on a chimney to reduce the amount of smoke that was coming back into her kitchen. “you can see how clean it is with the addition of a chimney” says Domina with a bright smile on her face “it just needs a little thinking, maybe next time I may be able to use three pots on one stove.

“Its not just a woman’s thing” says Domina “even men have to pay for the firewood, they appreciate the fuel saving stove just as much as women do, and in fact I have trained more men than women in my village.” A few meters from Domina’s house, is Karambizi, a father of four and a resident of Domina’s village “the stove is a blessing from heaven” he says “there is no telling what life could be like now if we did not learn about the technology, it has really saved our lives. I can now save money to send my children to school and even get them treated at the health clinic when they are ill”

As one of the environment protection measures, LWF/WS Rwanda program has been promoting fuel saving stoves among communities to ensure that their environment rehabilitation effort remains sustainable. The stove has also helped villagers save their meager earnings for other critical needs such as school fees for their children and access to Medicare. The stove alongside other environment conservation initiatives has proved as best practice to the program especially when integrated with other initiatives in sustainable livelihoods. In Rwanda miracles still happen.