Pygmy Survival Alliance has four active GlobalGiving fundraisers in progress. Because of your generosity, I am able to report progress in all areas of life in the Cyaruzinge Village. This April report is to update you about the ongoing progress being accomplished in all of the projects.
In December IBEW local 46 of Seattle gave the community a grant to install electricity in their homes. The electrical contractor began installing on March 24, 2021. To date, 22 homes have been wired for the 52 dwellings. A quote when they finished wiring her home. “Life is good in our home, now it is the best. I never thought they would be so wealthy.”
Covid-19 has put a damper on everything and everyone in the world. The Charuzinge village sends their gratitude and wishes you a healthy year. Rwanda has been in lockdown for much of 2021; with this restriction, no one in the Cyaruzinge community has contracted COVID-19. This also meant the Cyaruzinge Village couldn’t work, which meant they had no food. With your generous gifts for food, PSA was able to bring them food for which they are extremely thankful. Their benefactors are people who live far away and you have given them money so they can eat. This tells them that you care about them, the marginalized people of Rwanda. This act of kindness raises their self-worth and gives them hope of being able to care for themselves. In January they planting beans. They plan to dry half of the beans and save them for hard times ahead.
The chief Jean Marie Nzariturande asked us to help build a community kitchen to Feed the Children. The men started making bricks, however, the soil was too wet, the bricks were not of good quality, everyone agreed it was best to wait for the weather to change, and the soil to dry. It is important to make good quality bricks so the kitchen will last many years. However, the weather forecast is for 60% chance of daily thunder-showers for another three weeks. It looks like it will be May before the kitchen can be built. Now we have the funds so the kitchen will be built as soon as the rainy season ends. Claude translated a message from the village. They asked him to send it to you, their benefactors, “We are no longer temporary people, but people building for a future.”
The Rwandan government allowed the opening of nursery and primary schools. Cyaruzinge has 69 students attending primary school.
Seven to twelve-year-old boys from the Village are able to attend primary school if they are fed a meal before and after school. The parents and elders want these boys to continue in school so they will become able to contribute to the community and themselves. The community kitchen feeding the children will make it possible for these children to go to school instead of looking for work doing odd jobs to make enough money to eat. Though the kitchen isn’t built yet, we have hired a woman to feed ten of these children to keep them in school. They are fed breakfast before school and again after school before soccer practice.
The soccer teams are practicing and to be prepared when they are able to compete again. With the schools allowed to open the coaches and players are hopeful that competitive sports leagues will be allowed to meet.
The Amakondera Early Childhood Development Center is making progress with the survey done; the Architect is now drawing the specifics and we are investigating building the utilities that will best be suited for the ECDC. There is a shortage of water; we are looking into water catchment possibilities.
Tutsi Genocide Memorial Day is every 7 April. Dedicated to the memory of the atrocities of the 500,000 to 1 million Rwandans who were butchered mercilessly during the genocide of 1994. In Rwanda, there are candlelight memorial services, moments of silence for the victims, speeches, exhibits, conferences; all dedicated to the remembrance of those who died. As this is a memorial to the family of the citizens of Rwanda it doesn’t last only on the one day but throughout the month of April. Many of the Cyaruzinge people lost family members during the revolution.
I cannot end this report with the Genocide, so I am ending with this exciting news.
PSA was given the grant to encourage the expansion of entrepreneurs. In March micro-loans were distributed to six people in the community to help them expand their businesses. More on this as the micro-loan program grows.
See below the attached Kwibanda (Focus).
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