A Smooth Road

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

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

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!

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!

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

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

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.