Pygmy Survival Alliance Blog

Celebration of Claude

2011-09-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

Claude is PSA's Field Officer. He dedicates his time to the people of Bwiza. He is a soccer star and is using his talents to form a soccer team with the children of the village. We took time out and with the help of Dr. Susan threw a big birthday party for Claude.

Welcome song to Bwiza

2011-09-19T10:20:00.000-07:00

Check out our first day back in Rwanda. We participated in a village counsel meeting. Listen...

More farmland for Bwiza

2011-08-22T12:47:00.000-07:00

The people of Bwiza have decided to use a recent donation from the US Embassy in Kigali to build terraces to improve their agricultural output. The village of Bwiza is located on steep and rocky hillsides, but the residents are able to cultivate a number of nourishing crops by digging a series of level fields in the hillside. There are 40 new terraces, so each family will own two.
Additionally, a veterinary officer was recruited to follow up with the animals in Bwiza. The officer will visit the village three times a week.

Basket weaving in Bwiza starts up

2011-08-22T12:23:00.000-07:00

Thirty-two people in Bwiza are learning to weave traditional Rwandan baskets, as part of paid training provided by UN Women. COPHAD’s representatives on the ground are helping coordinate the project, which will provide the villagers with training five days a week for six months on how to weave a high quality product.

The goal is to generate income. Morale is high!

Bwiza’s musicians perform – get your copy today!

2011-08-22T12:11:00.000-07:00

Bwiza's performance group has just released a new CD of traditional songs about peace, unity and hope. This is unique music that you can't hear anywhere else!

With a donation of $35 or more, you can have your very own copy of the CD.

(Please write “Kwizera CD” in the “Special instructions” section when you make your donation.)

Thank you very much for your support!

Pygmy Survival Alliance Blog: A Smooth Road

2011-06-07T12:16:00.000-07:00

Pygmy Survival Alliance Blog: A Smooth Road

See our progress! 2008-2011

2011-06-03T15:13:00.000-07:00

In 2008, Pygmy Survival Alliance began working in the village Bwiza, Rwanda, with a population of about 150 people. At that time, the village was physically close to the capital, Kigali, but the living conditions were dramatically worse. Bwiza residents lived in stick houses and went without eating on a daily basis because of lack of food. Their children were slowly dying of malnutrition, and the adults had almost no hope for the future.

The Community of Potters Health and Development (COPHAD) project started because the leaders of the Community of Potters in Rwanda (Batwa Pygmies) asked us to help them stop the decline in their population. COPHAD empowers people to solve their own problems using their own resources. With the people, we develop a plan that they can do themselves, together with our help.

COPHAD applies broad methods to a specific, critical focus: to find and address the root causes of poverty and illness and reverse them. We have focused on inexpensive interventions with a big impact -- our first project being the distribution of cheap, blue plastic shoes to everyone. Even now, we are sometimes known in Bwiza as the people who "taught the pygmies to wear shoes".

We had no clue that those shoes would not only help children to attend school and women to work in the market; but also, to help women gain equality, and to reverse the longstanding cultural prejudice historically maintained by Bwiza's neighbors against the villagers.

COPHAD saves lives, improves the welfare of the poorest people in one of the poorest countries of the world, and is both affordable and sustainable. After three years in Bwiza, we are on the verge of establishing food security -- and that comes after we have already achieved universal health insurance, 100% primary school enrollment, total restoration of traditional dance and performance traditions, rising standards of living and remarkably, even gender equality. Sixty new brick house are now being built in a collaborative partnership with the government of Rwanda and Bwiza's surrounding neighbors. And, the people of Bwiza have become the only certified agricultural cooperative in Rwanda based in a former Batwa community. They are first pygmies to ever own cows.

In Bwiza, COPHAD used humanitarian aid, public health, education, sanitation and hygiene, nutrition, agriculture, the arts and business to create a positive change cycle leading to reduced infant mortality through enhanced socio-cultural adaptation. The result has been to unlock human potential and transform peoples’ lives.

Services delivered and outcomes achieved by Bwiza villagers 2008-2011
*COPHAD Provided Services*	*BWIZA Delivered Outcomes*
Shoes	New access to market and school
School uniforms	5 children started school; now all are in primary; 2 in secondary
Village Health and Development Council	First-time village leadership structure and performance with ongoing leadership training
“Mutuelle” Health Insurance Cards	First-time attendance at Health Centers and Health Care, now with women routinely seeking pre-natal and delivery care in a supported health center
De-worming + Vitamin A supplementation	First-time decreased incidence of diarrhea; improved health, school attendance and energy levels
Health education: sanitation & hygiene	Built five latrines, began hand washing practices; now overall visible improvement in hygiene of the people
44 Plastic roof tarps	44 stick houses re-built with new roofs
Nutritional Supplements	First-time amelioration of kwashiorkor in vulnerable infants
Manure for gardens, plus seeds	Better gardens and crop yields; reduced food insecurity
Micro-finance planning	New business initiatives, creating 5-person trading partnerships to trade in goat skins and vegetables
Technical Assistance to dig a surface well and build water collection tanks	Healthier water, more productive use of time, better water available for goats and cows
Liaison with Ministry of Agriculture	Started rock quarry; sold dump trucks full of stone daily
Hoes, shovels, pickaxes	Built 62 farming terraces; crop yield = 1 ton beans in first year; even greater yields thereafter
Liaison with US Embassy, Kigali	Pygmy song and dance troupe “KWIZERA” organized and performing; now, new CD produced and distribution ongoing
Monitoring and Evaluation Services	Data-driven basis for program development; post-intervention survey ongoing June 2011
Creation and training of “ABAHUZA” Cooperative	Leadership training, financial management, business and agricultural education
Liaison with Executives of the Cell, Sector, District and Ministry of Local Government	Partnership relationship for housing construction and future spread of COPHAD development methods to other poor Rwandan communities
Liaison with Heifer International	Donation of animal husbandry curriculum
Coordination of multiple donor groups	Establishment of goat herd; now with over 96 goats. Introduction of cows; now with 11 cows.
Compressed-earth brick machine	Thousands of bricks made to build new houses

Bwiza performance group CD to be released

2011-06-02T18:27:00.000-07:00

Bwiza’s performance troup, Kwizera is set to release a CD of traditional songs this year called “Songs of Bwiza”. It will include music that promotes messages of peace and understanding. The recording was made by Phil Vernon from British Columbia, Canada with the help of an international group of volunteers and will be available for purchase soon on www.coffeerwanda.com.

This is big news for the community.

When we first met with the people of Bwiza we told them that we’d heard pygmies used to dance for the king of Rwanda, and so we asked if this community still danced. They responded, “No.” We asked them through the translator, “Why not?” And they told us that they couldn’t sing and dance anymore because they were hungry.

Now, with food security improved in Bwiza, people are singing and dancing again! Volunteer Karl Derringer generously donated costumes and arranged for them to perform at the US embassy’s crafts fair in 2009.

Training, training and more training!

2011-06-02T18:17:00.000-07:00

Private sector organization, Women for Women, is conducting training for 120 women on entrepreneurship once a week for four months. In attendance will be 13 women from Bwiza. The group will learn about small business ventures like making juice, raising poultry, and selling milk.

Karl Deringer, one of our volunteers, has also helped to encourage entrepreneurship by promoting groups of five persons to form teams for trading local resources at markets. They “buy low” at one market and then carry the goods to another market where they can “sell high”. In this way, the teams are learning money management skills. Starting with a loan of about $10 per person, they have been able to pay off the loans after several months. (Left: Members of the cooperative hold salt licks they were able to buy for their cows using their profits.)

Heifer International is also conducting training with 40 community members from Bwiza’s “ABAHUZA” cooperative on effective animal care and husbandry. Since 2008, livestock in Bwiza has grown from 1 cow and 34 goats, to 11 cows and 96 goats. Bwiza residents have expressed the need for more training on how to care for the animals.

In the training, community members will learn the signs of a sick goat or cow so they can identify ailing animals. They will also learn how to administer medicine to the livestock, if the illness is serious. (Right: A trainer teaches the group about proper grazing for cattle.)

Crops Flourish in Bwiza

2011-06-02T18:00:00.000-07:00

Even though Bwiza is located on relatively infertile and rocky soil, this year community members are expecting big crop yields. Pygmy Survival Alliance with our partner on the ground, Health Development Initiative, donated five tons of manure to fertilize bean and sorghum plants as they grow. One Bwiza resident, Nyirabera, told us she was very happy and expects to harvest a lot of beans this season.

This man from Bwiza is known as Nyakarundi, and he reports a large bean harvest this year. He said it's because he dug terraces and used manure this season.

One brick at a time…

2011-06-02T17:39:00.000-07:00

Here at the Seattle office of Pygmy Survival Alliance, we were excited to learn about an effective brick making invention, called the Makiga Stabilized Soil Block Press (SSB) Machine.

It’s produced in Kenya and can make hundreds of bricks a day with just a few people. Working without electricity, two people load the center container with a mixture of soil and cement, and then another person tightly compresses the dirt by pulling a leaver down. When the leaver is pulled up, out pops a beautiful, strong brick. The strong force used to compress the bricks means cement can go much farther: about one bag of cement per 250 bricks. The finished product is even grooved so each brick will interlock with the next and less cement is needed as mortar. That's important because cement is about four times as expensive in Rwanda as it is in the USA.

So far, Bwiza community members have made over 500 bricks for use in the new houses.

Bwiza to get new houses

2011-06-02T16:22:00.000-07:00

The people of Bwiza have been living in small houses under grass- thatched roofs, which did not protect them against heavy rainfall and cold nights. But recently, the Rwandan government implemented a new policy abolishing thatched houses in favor of more “modern” houses made of bricks.

Pygmy Survival Alliance, the Bwiza community and our partner, Health Development Initiative, have been assisting in the construction of new brick houses so the people of Bwiza can have better living conditions. Villagers are excited to relocate to the new houses, so they’ve been actively participating in construction. HDI and PSA supported the work with donations of 20 dump trucks of stone for foundations, 50 bags of cement and a brick machine that can make over 250 bricks per day.

This truck is carrying 50 bags of cement, given by HDI and PSA

The construction was the focus of a recent community work event, called umuganda, which takes place once a month. The district mayor (pictured right with HDI's Dr. Nkurunziza), secondary school students and Bwiza community members all pitched-in to build the houses. The mayor thanked the community for their participation and expressed his appreciation for the partnership of HDI and PSA.

It was a great success!

Students from a near-by school helping in the construction of houses on umuganda day.

A Smooth Road

2011-05-01T16:20:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has volunteered with us in Bwiza knows how hard it was to get to the community. Even though it is located only about 10 miles away from the capital, the deeply pot-holed road made the journey seem endless. Well, potholes no more!

Our field manager Claude sent us this photo of what the road looks like now. As part of the government’s initiative to rid the country of stick houses, new brick houses in Bwiza are being built. This road will allow construction work to proceed and improve the efficiency of transportation to the new neighborhood.

Better access to Bwiza will facilitate the work of community members and development workers alike.

Goats and New Shoes in Bwiza

2009-12-12T14:56:00.000-08:00

Early Christmas presents are delivered from the US Embassy and the Bwiza Villagers have acquired goats.

Karl Deringer and Eddie visited Bwiza early in December, bringing new shoes for the villagers, and pencils, hats and small stuffed animals for the children.

Everybody turned out for this exciting event. Just look at the children's faces to see how much it means to have your own pencil.

And the specially requested running shoes by this young lady, so that she can participate in sports at school.

There were also wool beanies and toys sent by the embassy staff in Kigali.

Suddenly there are goats! Where did they come from?

Karl was thrilled to learn that the people of the village had made a decision to purchase goats with money that the dance troupe had earned by dancing at an event in the American Embassy in Kigali. This decision was based on an assessment that goats are the most practical animals for this environment.

Chickens were considered but they have to be fed grain which must be purchased regularly. Similarly, rabbits need extra feed to supplement grass, which would also need to be purchased. Goats, however can scavenge and eat almost anything. Each goat provides a lot of meat and the market for sales of kids and goat meat is very strong. Goats generally bear young twice a year and usually have two kids at each birthing, so the population will grow and most of the male kids will be sold.
The villagers are well versed in how to care for goats and one man in the village specializes in making ropes for tethers from sisal. He can make a 10 foot rope in about 30 minutes starting with the sisal leaves and ending with a strong elegant rope.

A Surface Well for Bwiza

2009-11-11T11:03:00.000-08:00

This month, Bwiza is getting a new well, thanks to the hard work of the villagers and the wonderful technical support and effort of volunteer Robb Lowy from Spokane, Washington USA and the UJAMA organization there .

The well project started in July 2008 with mapping and survey work and the design of a surface well improvement that would protect the fragile water supply and make it easier for people to fill their jerry cans with water. By July 2009, under the direction of volunteers John Mellott and John Didicher from Atlanta, Georgia USA, a hand-dug well was completed. At a depth of about 8 feet, it proved that water was present even at the height of the dry season. Located down hill from the spring from which villagers currently collect water, it was a great beginning.

This month, Robb returned to Bwiza and continued the next phase of construction. He and the men dug a new surface well slightly downhill from the one dug in July, which will be converted into a cistern to improve water-holding capacity during the dry season.

Then, rocks and dirt were sifted through a wire screen to prepare uniform gravel to surround the well intake.

Next, the pieces had to be assembled and a conduit run to the location downhill for a water collection and storage tank.

Rocks were carefully laid over the conduit and finally steps could be taken to connect the storage tank. The men of the village worked hard and enthusiastically to complete the first steps.

The work is still going on but soon we will see the results and Bwiza can celebrate another huge improvement in the daily life of everyone.

Help Support PSA!

2009-09-08T15:38:00.000-07:00

Pygmy Survival Alliance is now participating in Good Search, enabling you to support the work we do just by searching the internet!

GoodSearch.com is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up!

You can also help by making purchases through GoodShop.com, an online shopping mall which donates up to 37 percent of each purchase to your favorite cause! Hundreds of great stores including Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, ebay, Macy's and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you’ll be supporting PSA.

Just go to www.goodsearch.com and be sure to enter Pygmy Survival Alliance as the charity you want to support. You can also download a toolbar application that will save your Good Search organization preference and allow you to search from your web browser without visiting Goodsearch.com first.

Let the searching begin!

2009-09-03T16:32:00.000-07:00

Minority Rights Group International, in association with UNICEF, recently published its annual State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2009 report, with a special focus on Education. MRG found that 101 million of children who are out of school worldwide come from minority or indigenous groups. The group argues for the need to protect and promote the right to education for all people, and highlights the varied and significant challenges facing minority and indigenous populations in individual nations. The report has been heralded as the first comprehensive study of the state of education for minorities and indigenous populations around the globe.

The Batwa pygmies of the Great Lakes region figure prominently throughout the report. In Rwanda, the MRG argues that the Rwandan government's current refusal to recognize different ethnic identities, while understandable in light of the country's past, leads to "ongoing exclusion" of the historically marginalized Batwa. According to the report, Rwanda currently boasts the highest primary net enrollment ratio in the region (92% in 2004), yet the government's education strategies fail to mention the Batwa. As a result, Batwa children, in addition to facing ample discrimination, are not receiving education that properly addresses the needs inherited from their inequality.

The members of COPHAD's pilot village have long cited discrimination as a deterrent to accessing education, health care, and other government services. When a family works hard to purchase the uniform and shoes necessary to send a child to school, it would be nice to know that this child will receive the best possible education. Hopefully, the report by the MRG is a step towards greater awareness and consideration of the educational needs of the Batwa, whose future rests on the prosperity and enrichment of its children.

Interested to learn more? Read MRG's 2008 publication, The Right to Learn: Batwa Education in the Great Lakes Region of Africa (Click 'download' on the sidebar).

An Emergency Evacuation

2009-08-27T07:32:00.000-07:00

Sometimes fate intervenes in miraculous ways. In late July the COPHAD project received a distinguished visitor - US Deputy Chief of Mission in Rwanda, Anne Casper. While her visit started much like any other, on this day, Anne and her husband Carl (see photo above) were to become bonded to the village in ways I am sure they did not expect. As they descended the hills of the village, word reached our visitors that a young woman was experiencing distress during labor. Quick to react, Anne, Carl, Karl, and Eddy rushed to investigate. Anne and Carl were instrumental, indeed responsible, for the safe transport of the mother to a local health center, and eventually hospital, where she received the Cesarean section necessary to save both their lives. The couple offered not only their bare strength (Carl!) and an embassy vehicle to carry the mother quickly and safely, but also provided financial support and influence necessary to secure a bed in the hospital for mother and child. The effect of this relatively unplanned visit was to transform the lives of mother, child, family, and by extension, community. The photo of the healthy mother and baby below is evidence enough.

We were pleased to hear that Anne and Carl's contributions were officially recognized back in the United States. On August 7, Senator Isakson of Georgia commended the couple for their role in ensuring the health and safety of mother and child. The Senator expressed pride and gratitude for "Americans like you who are dedicated to your profession and the principals of our American overseas mission -- to help others in need".

Each day this work presents new challenges...let's take a moment to soak up its rewards.

Challenges to Maternal and Infant Health

2009-08-04T23:57:00.000-07:00

Maternal and child health has been a strong focus of COPHAD since the onset of our efforts. Encouraging good birthing practices, promoting antenatal care, and fostering safe motherhood are all part of our strategy to decrease maternal and infant mortality and enable healthy childhoods.

In recent weeks, we witnessed firsthand the many barriers to healthy delivery still faced by women in Bwiza. On separate occasions, three women went into labor. Our team was present when the first of these women delivered. What we witnessed was both tragic and telling. After a prolonged labor, the mother began to deliver in a banana grove below the village. Without medical care, the mother had spent several days in distress and eventually delivered a stillborn baby in an unsanitary and unforgiving environment. Despite our efforts at resuscitation, the child could not be saved.

Yet, on two other occasions, we are happy to report the safe delivery of two babies and the continued health of two happy mothers. What was the difference you may ask? These two women gave birth at hospitals. These deliveries were made possible through the coordinated efforts and resources (transportation, money, etc.) of the community, Pygmy Survival Alliance, and others (including the use of a US embassy vehicle, which is a whole other story). Lack of transportation and financial means are just two of the barriers the individuals in this community face when seeking care.

Imagine you are a mother who has gone into labor and begun to feel distress. Your next step is to walk several hours down a bumpy road to the health center, where you will most likely be referred to a hospital even further away. If you are lucky enough to get transport to the hospital, you will then be told to pay six days stay upfront, all the while wondering how you are going to feed yourself and your family during your stay. Add to these challenges the deep-rooted discrimination and stigmatization you as a member of the Community of Potters have previously experienced at these locations. You can begin to see just how frightening and challenging it must be to ensure your child is born in a hospital.

We know that innovative, sustainable solutions must be found to ensure that once a woman is in labor, it will be possible for her to reach a health center or hospital and receive proper care. Encouraging safe birthing practices will not be enough. Interventions must be created that reflect the complex nature of the existing barriers to care.

Volcanoes National Park

2009-07-27T06:06:00.000-07:00

Not all Community of Potters villages are alike. We recently traveled to Rwanda's Northern province to visit a COP village located near Volcanoes National Park. The park originally gained recognition as the site of famous naturalist Dian Fossey's work with the mountain gorillas. The park has been designated as a sanctuary for the gorillas and heralded for its role in saving these animals from the brink of extinction.

While much attention has been paid to the survival of the gorillas, very little consideration has been paid to the plight of the pygmies displaced by this ecological project. Beginning in the 1970s, pygmy communities living within the forests surrounding the volcanoes were pushed out of their homes to make way for a gorilla habitat. Forced to resettle elsewhere, the survival of the pygmies, whom were dependent on a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, has itself been threatened.

One pygmy community we visited continues to live just outside the boundaries of the park, within site of their former home. The families here live sandwiched between the volcano on one side and someone else's arable farm land on the other. With no land of their own to speak of (imagine, the village comprises only the immediate area surrounding the huts in the photo above), the individuals of this community are battling both extreme poverty and discrimination. After ten years in this location, the living conditions remain very poor for these families. Their homes are often rudimentary and offer little to no protection from the wet, cold conditions existing in this region. Economic opportunities are scarce and families subsist on very little.

It is devastating to think that despite thousands of visitors to Volcanoes National Park each year, the existence and conditions of villages such as this remain overlooked. It is time the pygmies have a national and international advocacy campaign of their own.

Maternal and Child Health

2009-07-22T06:26:00.000-07:00

In January, students from the University of Washington conducted household surveys to establish baseline statistics on the overall health and well-being of the Community of Potters living in Bwiza. Back in the States, we were struck by the data they obtained. An exceedingly high number of child deaths were reported, that suggest a rate of child mortality between three to four times the national average for Rwanda.

A new project, led by volunteer Kate Doyle, is aimed at not only corroborating the data obtained in January, but also identifying the causes of morbidity and mortality for these children. Kate and Edith Musabwa, a Rwandan public health student, are utilizing the World Health Organization’s standard Verbal Autopsy Questionnaire to interview mothers in the village. By eliciting the signs and symptoms experienced by children prior to death, it will be possible for the project’s doctors to arrive at the underlying causes of death.

In the process of these interviews we are also obtaining a lot of important information on how women in the village perceive of health and illness and the health-seeking or –demoting behaviors they engage in. Together, this information will enable us to identify possible areas for intervention and design new tools for health education that can reduce the occurrence of needless child deaths.

Bwiza Barbeque

2009-07-20T06:47:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, history was made in Bwiza! In celebration of the dedication and hard-work witnessed on the terrace project, a barbeque was thrown for all of the families in the village.

At the suggestion of the villagers, a cow capable of feeding more than 140 people (who some came to call "Jason") was purchased for 90,000 Rwandan francs. As soon as money had passed hands, everyone got down to business. First, our team doctor-turned-veterinarian examined the cow and declared him to be fit and healthy. Then, a small group of men gathered to kill, skin, and butcher the cow as we looked on with interest.

A real division of labor was noticed throughout the day. While the women danced, sang, and arranged for cooking, the men were busy preparing and distributing the meat. Each family received equal portions of the different parts of the cow to prepare at their home. By mid-afternoon, we were enjoying our brochettes (prepared on a small fire and served on newly made brochette sticks) and the villagers were returning home to prepare a feast of their own.

The event was a joyous occasion for everyone involved and will no doubt be remembered for a very long time. For us it was also a great learning experience, and possibly the freshest meal we have been served yet!

Moto, anyone?

2009-07-16T06:22:00.000-07:00

Question: What's the fastest way to get through rush hour traffic in Kigali?

Answer: A moto!

Motos are fast, relatively cheap and exhilarating to ride. Yes, they can be dangerous as they weave down the center strip of the street dodging minibuses that are clogged with commuters and dump trucks that belch diesel fumes. Yes, they can be really scary the first time or two. But look at the front of the moto drivers on the left and on the right of this photo and what do you see? Each is carrying a helmet for the passenger. Passengers ride behind the driver, gripping handle grips on the saddle, protected by a helmet and full face guard and by the physical mass of the driver himself. Quite simply, these guys are professionals. (Neither I nor anyone I know know has ever seen a female moto driver.) Motos would be totally at home on the post-apocalyptic set of the movie "Mad Max" and for less than a dollar they'll take you half-way across the city. They seem to operate with the fuel gauge perpetually on "E"; but somehow they make an irreplaceable contribution to the transportation network of Kigali.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

2009-07-15T03:46:00.000-07:00

Or possibly more.

Another new initiative is afoot with our latest team of volunteers. As part of our outreach work, we are conducting household surveys of families of Community of Potters living in neighboring districts. As part of this process, volunteers Bill and Noël have come up with a creative way of thanking families for speaking with them.

After each survey, a household is given a photo of their family standing in front of their home. This is made possible through the use of a compact, lightweight, battery-operated Canon photo printer. We are able to take and print a digital photo in the field in less than two minutes! In the photo above you can see Bill with the printer, demonstrating how it works to some of the kids.

The photos have become extremely popular, with everyone asking for a printed copy of their own. Aside from the inherent personal value of owning a photo of one’s family, the photos are sometimes the only glimpse of oneself that these individuals have had in a very long time. This simple, relatively inexpensive process has proven to be of immeasurable value for everyone involved.

A Community Effort

2009-07-15T02:57:00.000-07:00

A unique new project is underway in Bwiza village. Early last week our volunteer Engineering team, comprised of John Didicher, Noel Relyea, and Bill Wood, devised a terracing plan for the steep, rocky, and under-utilized slopes of Bwiza. By carving out terraces on the hillsides and supplementing them with manure, the villagers will be able to grow food for their families and also prevent erosion in the long-term.

The project was presented by our field manager, Eddy Rwagasore, as a means through which we can help the village to help themselves. Very quickly, a special committee of eager and excited residents was assembled to lead in the effort. To get started, we supplied hoes, shovels, and picks to aid in the construction. We are also providing the worker’s families with food that will not only maintain their strength, but also offset any potential loss of income during the construction process.

The terrace building has been a great collaborative effort, with men, women and children working daily toward the goal of creating a sustainable source of food in the village. In just a few short days, seven terraces have been erected on the slopes of Bwiza, with the promise of more to come. With each day we look forward to seeing the progress that has been made while we were away!

Photographic Evidence: Peanut Butter as Medicine!

2009-07-14T03:21:00.000-07:00

This picture shows the blond hair of one of the boys in Bwiza village when we visited in January 2009. The color change of the hair is the result of chronic protein-calorie malnutririon, also known as "kwashiorkor". As one of 3 boys in this family, this little guy was not getting the nutrition he needed to grow and develop normally. He was quiet, reserved to the point of lethargy and not playful. The mother reported having eaten no sources of protein in the last week.

This next picture shows the same boy on the left, riding on the back of his older brother 6 months later. Notice his hair is back to a nearly-normal shade of black. His activity is improved, he is more playful, and he is often asking for food. By all accounts he is acting a lot more like a "normal" kid. What made the difference? Just one teaspoonful of peanut butter a day. We have been providing the family a minimal nutritional suplement prepared in our field managers' own kitchen using peanut butter rolled in powdered infant formula. Like magic, a small boost in calories and protein each day has changed this boy's health, improved his development and provided a foundation for an improved ability to fight infection and resist disease. Peanut butter as medicine? See the evidence for yourself!

Welcome back Ka-day!

2009-07-12T12:14:00.000-07:00

Over in Rwanda, the "r" sound and the "l" sound in English often get mixed-up. So my name becomes "Ka-day" instead of "Karl". That's what they said when we came back to the village of Bwiza this time. When I walk past the little kids, the say "Ka-day". When the women dance and then bow and give me a hug, they say "Ka-day". I'm getting used to it. But the vitality of the people is always amazing. This time we returned to the village, the men danced, the women danced, and everyone sang and clapped their hands. The series of hugs and greetings were wonderful and great fun. Our team knew it had to rise to the occasion, and it did: we responded with a rousing round of "Row, row, row your boat.", which resulted in an enthusiastic wave of applause and a tumult of satisfaction. When I asked the villagers why these American volunteers had come to help, they knew right away, "Love", came the group reply. "Wow", I thought, they really get it. And the volunteers here on our team do too. It is a great team and we are here for a month to work on the COPHAD project with the Community of Potters of Rwanda, (formerly known as the Batwa pygmies). Stay tuned for more over the next few weeks as we relate the news from Kigali, and Bwiza, Rwanda...

2009-01-13T19:35:00.000-08:00

When we first arrived back in Bwiza on this trip, we received a royal welcome.　We heard the flute song long before we arrived at the main town square, The singing and shouts announced our arrival. As soon as we stepped into the clearing, we were swarmed by well wishers who reached out to shake our hands and hug us in greeting, saying "Amakuru" and "Yego, Yego": "Hello" and "Yes, yes ". They greeted each of us and swirled about in the traditional dance form with arms outstretched and faces raised. It was as though we were their own flesh and blood, as if they were welcoming us home agian.

A few days later, I was walking in the village to assist our survey teams when I came upon the man in the photo in front of his hut of sticks and leaves. He was using the blade of a hoe to scrape the green, exterior leafy material from what appeared to be a stack of leaves from a yucca plant. After discarding the green matter, he smoothed and straightened the remaining white fibers. Then he took three strands of the fibers and wrapped them in his left hand. Only then did I notice that his thumb was contracted by a deep scar which had obviously deeply cut his hand long ago, severing his flexor tendon in the process. Quickly he began to braid the strands and before long, he had made a sturdy rope of about eight feet in length. One end was braided into a loop which could easily be slipped over the other free end to make a sturdy and adjustable noose, perfect for controlling a runaway goat. For his craftsmanship, he asked 200 Rwandan francs-about 40 cents. Now I'm looking for a goat.

2009-01-10T10:28:00.001-08:00

Karl and now our son Derek are in Rwanda. Just before Karl left for Rwanda, he got a generous donation from one of our patients who saved her pennies in order to help the Abatwa. She touched our hearts because it was truly a sacrifice for her to give any money. It made us so grateful to all of you who have helped make this possible.
-Patricia

Karl sends this message:
"The photo shows a Bwiza child with severe malnutrition that makes his hair look very light in color. We are trying to figure out how to provide supplemental feeding but are not sure how to get food to the infant, since what we provide may be eaten by the family members, because they may only eat a meal twice a week! The other photo shows how the plastic tarps that we have distributed have been used to provide a better roof for the huts. The last photo shows our village health worker, Eddy, standing by a newly-built latrine that was built by villagers from local materials using the tools we provided, which cost about $16--another low cost, high impact intervention. We are conducting a program evaluation and a village health survey this week."

Rebuilding One Home at a Time

2008-10-24T23:32:00.000-07:00

Patricia went back to Rwanda as part of another project. She filmed the rebuilding of Claude's home that she and Karl are sponsoring.

Building a Hospital Video

2008-04-13T00:35:00.000-07:00

National Day of Mourning for the Genocide

2008-04-07T02:06:00.001-07:00

Blog April 7, 2008

National Day of Mourning

Fourteen years ago today, unspeakable horrors flooded the lives of common people in Rwanda. Violence erupted on a scale unknown to many who live comfortably in the rich nations of the world. A complete breqkdown of humanity led to a hell that raged for months, In the end, the streets were empty, except for the corpses, and the dogs that fed on them.

This morning, the streets are empty again: eerily empty in a way we have not seen since we arrived here more than a month ago. The usual rage of trafic is muted. For once, there are more moto-drivers than people. The din of construction is gone. The few dogs that remain are silent, and hungry.

The timid, cautious looks of the few people we meet on our morning wallk suggest that the quiet is not peaceful. It is roiling with memories that cannot be spoken out-loud. The memories drown out the words that might have surfaced. And so, it is mainly the birds who speak today in caws and chirrups and whistles.

In this land of many hills, the nuances of altitude and elevation are everywhere. The next hilltop seems a straight shot away. Yet, there may be swamps in the valley that seperate this hilltop from the next. To cross the swamps is difficult and dangerous, and so we take the long way around. We stay above the fray, travelling along one contour of elevation to reach our destination.

The hill crest is the surest route to follow. The best roads hug the crest, keeping one safely above the murky surface below. Today, the surface is quiet. People take the surest routes. Thankfully, these routes have been paved and the sidewalks have been laid. And thankfully, the sidewalks are far, far enough, away from the swamps to keep the common people safe.

Dedicated Rwanda Docs

2008-04-06T11:15:00.001-07:00

Building a Hospital

2008-04-03T04:02:00.000-07:00

Blog April 4, 2008 Building a Hospital by Hand

Imagine building a hospital by hand. It would be an enormous task. But if you got all your friends together, plus everyone in your town to help and you and worked for years and years, you might be able to put a dent in the project. Now imagine the hospital is in rural Rwanda, that you have no resources but hand tools and human muscle, and that you are buying building materials as the funds trickle-in. That's the situation in Momeya.

One of the most amazing things to us was that the villagers are building the hospital themselves. They have been organized by a valiant, some might say Quixotic, former refugee-turned Lutheran pastor named John Rutsindintwarane. In 2004, the villagers knew nothing about construction or building funds. They knew nothing about public relations or political lobbying. Many couldn't tell a shovel from a level, or a trowel from an agenda. But they learned. All religions and factions learned to work together on this ecumenical-interfaith project.

They learned how to conduct public opinion surveys, run meetings, make presentations and most importantly, to hold public officials accountable. They learned to assess their oun resources, dissect problems into issues and define actions they could take to deal with the issues. Oh, and by the way, they learned how to wield pickaxe and chisel, and broke-up over 500 tons of stone by hand in order to prepare the foundation.

Our small contribution to the project provided fifteen sacks of Portland Cement, which Pastor John will haul to the site next week. It's a small contribution, but it makes us an ally in the project. The projet may take years to complete. But as the people of Mumeya recruit more alllies, they draw one step closer to the day when the doors to their new hospital will open.

The Island

2008-04-01T08:11:00.000-07:00

The Island in Lake Rweru

We went there to view a performance by a volunteer theater troupe about healthy life choices and disease prevention. It turned out that we were as much part of the entertainment as the performers, because we are “Muzungu” (white people).

Lake Rweru is a broad, shallow body of water that seperates Rwanda and Burundi. It lies at the end of two-hour ride down a rutted dirt road, amid a plain planted with corn and bananas. Somewhere in the lake is a island that does not appear on any of the maps we could find. It is home to a village of about 600 people, most of whom can neither read nor write, nor as we were told, had ever seen a white person.

We think we were told the truth, because when one of the mothers pointed us out to her daughter and said “Muzungu”, one of our co-workers asked her, “How do you know they are Muzungu? Have you ever seen Muzungu before?” She looked puzzled, and said, “No”. Others who were born and raised in the village confirmed that we were the first anyone had seen.

Many of the children ran away from us and were afraid to shake our hands at first. But after the show, they were less afraid and crowded around us for a good look.

As we headed back to the leaky wooden boat that would ferry us and the theater troupe across the water, we thought of the pregnant women who deliver their babies at home, We were surprised to learn of their belief that it is both dangerous and bad luck for a woman in labor to cross the lake, and so they sometimes die for lack of maternity care.

When we saw that they had no motorized craft in which to cross, but instead relied on dugout canoes, paddled by hand, we realized the wisdom of their belief. Maybe it would be better for a woman to take her chances at home, we thought. But then, what do we know? After all: we're just Muzungu.

New Shoes

2008-04-01T07:50:00.000-07:00

Blue Shoes

How much would you pay for a few pairs of shoes? Say, about four-score pairs that will shod the feet of an entire village of marginalized people? What if you could buy all those shoes for $110? Or, for about the same price as a fancy dinner for two including wine and tip at a toney restaurant downtown, you can give shoes to a small village. Yet for these villagers, shoes were an unaffordable luxury.

Without shoes, one is forbidden by law from attending school or market. So,of course the shoes will protect peoples' feet from sharp sticks and stones, but they will also allow children to attend school, and, they will permit parents to sell their hand made goods in the market.

When we delivered them, we were greeted with singing, bare foot dancing and exultation. Everyone assembled in the village meeting place and the elders determined how the shoes would be distributed. The children and oldest villagers were given theirs first, before the teenage boys swooped in and grabbed the rest.

As we left, we were escorted back up the road by more songs and dance, But this time, almost all the dancers wore blue shoes.

More thanks from the nurses

2008-04-01T02:21:00.000-07:00

In order to transfer a sick patient or laboring mother with a breech presentation to the hospital, one had to call the District hospital 15 or 20 miles away. The only ambulance in the District then had to find its way to the center and back to the hospital, a four-hour trip on good days. On bad days, the transfer can take more than eight hours, if it can happen at all.

For this reason, we were eager to deliver doppler ultrasound fetal heartbeat monitors to the clinics. The devices are helpful for confirming fetal position. If the position is breech (butt first) or transverse (sideways), the mothers are transferred to the main hospital, which can perform a caesearean section if needed. The nurses were eager to have the technology because it allows them to be more certain of when to call for the ambulance.

So we delivered the devices and taught the nurses how to use them. Battery-powered and cheap, we hope to evaluate what difference they can make in the management of women in labor. And we're hoping for another success for appropriate technology.

Thank you from the nurses

2008-04-01T02:15:00.000-07:00

We have been out on a lot of dirt roads lately, as we have been visiting rural clinics and villages in a series of needs assessments and teaching visits. It has been an eye opening experience.

None of the clinics had running water or functioning blood pressure cuffs. All had solar power which needed repairs and upgrading and which did not work on cloudy days. One had no functional freezer to keep the vaccine suppplies cold, and of course, neither one had a doctor.
They were so thankful for the medical equipment and teaching we brought them- FROM YOU!
Here in this video are two nurses thanking you all for your contributions and Coffee Rwanda purchases that allowed us to buy this equipment for them. Some people have asked where they can contribute. We will keep you posted on the address to send contributions to Health Leadership International, where all your money will go toward these types of projects and where you can volunteer to help.

Breakdown

2008-04-01T02:08:00.000-07:00

Far down a rutted and muddy dirt road we bumped until suddenly we heard a tearing sound as if we had struck a hyena and were dragging it behind the 4-by-4. It was the muffler and exhaust system that had torn free from their mounting brackets. No problem. All it took was a trusty piece of rope that I had fortunately tucked into my pocket before the trip and a few branches to pry and prod the hot metal back into place. Then, with a few Boy-Scout knots, and a handkerchief for good measure, all was snugged back into place. Just another day in the bush: another success for appropriate technology.

repairperson needed

2008-03-19T05:02:00.000-07:00

The autoclaving (sterilization) machines are new but have broken. The hospital needs to send their equipment across town for sterilization. It can take many days. One of their anesthesia machines are broken and one works. This limits the operating room use which is so needed. Does anyone know someone who can help train Rwandans to repair these machines? Email us at: winningpictures@gmail.com

basketballkigali

2008-03-17T05:44:00.000-07:00

Basketball in Rwanda is fast, popular, and physical. At a local tournament over the weekend, the largest cheers went to players who made one-handed dunk shots around the outstreatched hands of their opponents, and two-handed dunk shots that left them dangling from the rim like ripe fruit ready to fall. One match-up featured a team of giants against another of amazingly agile ball-handlers. The three-point accuracy of the smaller team was no match for the slower but more powerful behemoths, and led to an easy victory. The dusty court was outdoors but protected from the sun by a large awning, and the concrete bleechers could seat hundreds. That's Claude watching the game with Karl.

2008-03-17T05:42:00.002-07:00

We met up with Claude, the Rwandan student we ave supported since our visit to the country in 2006. As a genocide suvivor, he has faced seemingly insurmountable problems, including the loss of nearly all his family and destruction of the family home located in a semi-rural part o f Kigali. He has managed to complete a technical program in computer hardware and is looking forward to the practical training during which he will learn to assemble computers and networks.

orthopedicsneeded

2008-03-17T05:42:00.001-07:00

A few days ago, we evaluated facilites the Kibagabaga Hospital in Kigali to help coordinate plans for an upcoming medical service visit sby doctors and nurses from Washington. We found that one of the most pressing need is for orthopedic services, since there is no orthopedic surgeon in the country, with a population of about eight million. We learned that just the equipment costs for such a program are staggering: one bid from a company in Belgium was over $100,000, or about 400 times the average annual wage. Without a way to collect te necessary capital, and with a population unable to pay for surgery, it will take some creative thinking to make an orthopedics program at Kibagabaga a reality.

thankyous

2008-03-17T05:31:00.000-07:00

We are trying to learn Kinyarwanda, the National language. It is very hard for us. However, just the few words we learned have come in handy both for getting along and giving Rwandans a good laugh. This is the lovely Amina, HDI secretary, teaching us some phrases.

karlsings

2008-03-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

Here is Karl trading songs with the Batwa. . They are thought to be the underserved of the underserved in terms of health. There is a UN report that describes their situation. www. achpr.org He offered to sing an American Indian song from the MicMac tribe in exchange for a song and dance by the Batwa. They immediately connected to the drumming rhythm and sang along with the refrain of the song that he had learned as a Boy Scout scores of years ago. It was a cultural exchange of the best kind that transcended barriers of language and distance to allow us to share together a celebration of life�

birthday

2008-03-13T07:22:00.000-07:00

We've been travelling to the "Community of Potters", formerly known at the Batwa (known as Pygmies to Americans)villages over the past few days and the results have been amazing. Both of us have reached deep into our past and called upon hidden talents that have not been used for decades. In this video, Patricia dances a traditional Batwa dance with the women elders of the village. They wanted her to spend the night, but we had other villages to visit and do needs assessments for health. It was an amazing learning experience that allowed us to gather information needed for a grant we are helping to write with our medical partners Kigali.

2008-03-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

The show was a comic drama about personal hygiene, including sanitary methods of waste control and handwashing; the risk of contractign tuberculosis from sharing drinking straws with persons infected with TB; and, about how to access the local system of health insurance ($2 per person per year for comprehensive coverage). It was a big hit.

march6th

2008-03-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

March 6, 2008

“Hello Phones”, is our cell phone store here in Rwanda. It's a one-room shop with fluorescently-lit counters on three sides, packed with mobile hand sets, behind which loiter bored-looking sales clerks. It sitst between a dry goods store and an electronics mart off one of the main business streets in downtown Kigali, a dirt street without sidewalks. I remember the details because it took us three trips there and back to get a cell phone that worked.

The first handset seemed fine, and despite that fact that it's tiny screen sported incomprehensable German text, we we reassured that there was a way to re-set the language to English. We left excited, and happy.

Two days later, after asking ten or so people for help, including our guest house manager, security guards, maintenance men, several doctors, secretaries and an assortment of passers-by, we were back at “Hello Phones”. It took some searching to find the place on our own, because of the plethora of similar shops that had somehow sprung up in the vicinity since our first visit. We stumbled past “Hi Phones”, and into “Hallo Phones” only to relize we were on the wrong block. Eventually we made it to “Hello” again.

The same clerk recognized us—not difficult since a mixed couple of white folks, tall man and short, red-headed woman, were unmistakeable. Another half dozen or so people scrutinized the phone, uttered expletives of shock and dismay in Kinyarwanda, and passed the handset on to the next person. Finally, a young man who appeared to be the cell phone techno geek started to pound furiously on the keys. After a short while he threw down the phone and said, in success “Shit!”. Again, we left happy.

However our disappointment quickly returned. It turned out that to make a call, we had to dial the telephone number four or five times, and still, we often did not connect. We were told that the network was on the fritz. “Keep trying”, said our friends, “It happens to us too. There are too many people trying to make a call.” We kept trying. No luck. Our friends tried to call their phones on our phone. No luck again. We headed back to “Hello Phones”.

The third time was a success. The bored assistant spoke to a supervisor and they tried to call too—again, no luck. They swapped out the SIM card into another model handset, and--Bingo. We were in business. We said good bye to “Hello Phones”, half certain that we were likely to be saying “Hello” again, in the not too distant future. �

In Kigali

2008-03-04T07:58:00.000-08:00

We are here in Kigali and connected with Health Development International where we will be doing our work, starting tomorrow. We arrived in Kigali this morning minus two bags that contained medical supplies and Karl's clothes. The BP cuffs and batteries made it, though. The bag are lost somewhere between London and Nairobi. We hope they will be found and get to us soon. We are staying at the Cozy Guest House and our phone number is 03364704. The country code is 250 when dialing from outside Rwanda.