Category: Rwanda

A group of students, all members of the association of survivors of genocide against Tutsi (AERG), has established a multimillion fund from which they will mobilise large capital to invest in profitable ventures.

Any investment they will make, eventually, is expected to draw the orphans out of vulnerable groups.

AERG members, now 43,000, from Universities, secondary schools and their alumni community, have agreed each to find at least Rwf20, 000 equivalent to one share in the planned Rwf1.3 billion scheme.

The scheme is named the Youth Initiative for Mutual Support, Investment and Sustainable Development of which a member will own ten shares (worth Rwf200, 000) maximum.

Since January, members from across the country were approached, and they all bought the idea. They have already begun acquiring the shares through two bank accounts open in Bank of Kigali and Ecobank.

By August, members will meet again and evaluate the progress and then launch the project in October, 2016.

“We have two main ideas,” says Jean de Dieu Mirindi, the president of AERG. “We are weighing out between a luxurious nursery, primary and secondary school or a health center in Kigali,” he said.

“God willing, we will also add on a guest house at the touristic holy land of Kibeho in Southern province,” Mirindi adds.

The two main ideas take into consideration the general public and the genocide survivors particularly.

For example, he said, “We are growing up, getting married and we wish to have our children attend to nice schools.” The idea to start a school which would later on, start a university level comes from that vision.

AERG also thinks that a health center will support genocide survivors who have medical problems.

In Kigali, they plan to set their venture in Gasabo district, because their previous project, One Dollar Hostel, also from that district, was successful.

One Dollar Hostel in Kinyinya sector is a complex estimatedat Rwf1.5 billion that hosts over 190 homeless genocide orphans. It was built through contribution of the Rwandan community and is privately managed on behalf of AERG.

Besides that, they believe Gasabo district is suitable for their dream business.

Many similar ventures in Rwanda have failed before they break even, largely because of mismanagement. Mirindi says AERG will not let such a thing happen to their project.

They have set up three managerial structures made of an executive committee, auditing committee and the conflict resolution council.

He says they draw the experience from other successful investments where they employ 30 permanent staff.

Currently, they have a planation and also rear 100 beef cattle and 300 goats on a 130 hectares piece of land in Nyagatare district.

Last season, they grew maize on 27 hectares, and they will soon start harvesting bananas on 5 hectares.

Apart from business, members have philanthropic activities that support widows and orphans to get shelter, and other social support.

A week ago, over 300 members headed to Jabana sector in Gasabo district to build a house for an elderly genocide survivor.

They are also giving one cow to a female retired soldier who fought alongside Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) Inkotanyi in the liberation struggle.

“These activities are very important; trauma cases are declining because we are showing the lonely and needy survivors that someone cares,” says Ruzindana Rugasa, a commissioner in GAERG, the alumni of AERG, which works hand in hand with students to execute projects.

Nyagatare district officials has donated food stuffs, clothes among others during the event to mark International Women’s Day.

The vulnerable women received the donation on International Women’s Day.

Three women received food stuffs, one received an African print cloth (kitengi) while 40 women received a goat each.

One of the beneficiaries is Dorcas Dusabe, a widow and mother of three and one of the Tanzania evictees in 2013, residing in Mirama I village.

Dorcas Dusabe was given 25 kgs of rice, maize flour, 3 litres of cooking oil, a box of bar soap in addition to 3 months’ rent.

“I have been living in isolation but now I realise the joy of being back home. I never saw an act like this in the country I grew up from and married in,” says Dusabe.

Egidia Mutegwaraba, coordinator of National Women Council (NWC) in Nyagatare sector revealed that helping vulnerable women is one of the performance contracts pledged last year being implemented.

Mutegwaraba explains that helping the vulnerable started during akagoroba k’ababyeyi (parents evening) where parents meet to discuss on issues affecting their families and share ideas on development.

“During the evening of parents, we sit and contribute whatever we have for the vulnerable residents in the village. That’s why we have given food to 3 women, another one an African print cloth and the remaining 40 will receive a goat each,” she adds.

All the food stuffs, clothes and goats are worth Rwf500.000 exclusive of what was donated by women associations in every village.

Jerôme Musomandera was born and raised in a fishing community on the shores of Lake Kivu, Bwishyura Sector in Karongi district.

His dream was to become an accountant about forty years ago, but his dreams were shuttered after his parents failed to pay school fees beyond secondary school.

He couldn’t figure out any other occupation apart from fishing, which was the main occupation for many people around the lake. Yet, “The fish catch was always small,” says Musomandera.

Until 1990s, fishing was done traditionally, but Musomandera learnt that there were new methods of rearing fish.

“Fish farming was bizarre to us; it was the first time we learnt about fishing ponds. We still ventured in the business,” he said.

During that period, 10 tilapia, Rwanda’s favourite fish, could hardly make a kilogram, and was sold at Rwf20. The main food available was and still is grass, which cannot help fish to grow bigger.

In 2002, the government began engaging Rwandan fishermen to try new techniques and also focus on catching sardine, locally known as isambaza which is the main fish species in the lake.

A sardine weighs barely 50 grams, but is widely consumed and exported to DRC where it is a staple food.

The transformation came with motorised boats where Musomandera and his crew could catch at least 200kgs of sardine per night.

“In 2003, I became the first fisherman to buy a bike, TF 125 and I was called a star in my neighborhood. Since then, we started enjoying fishing even more,” said Musomandera.

Rwandan lakes naturally unproductive?

Wilson Rutaganira, the program coordinator of aquaculture and fishing program at Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), says Rwanda has oligotrophic lakes, naturally unproductive.

For fish to grow naturally, they need natural food from phytoplankton- the grass debris and zooplankton-animal debris close to the lake’s surface. “Rwandan Lakes do not have such food, reason why their water is clean,” says Rutaganira.

For example in Lake Kivu, the debris are deep in the water, fish would suffocate if they swam deep into the water.

Jonathan Kayego, production manager of Projet Pêche, a fishing company from Karongi district told KT Press, “we have just caught 500kgs of sardine and no single kilogram of tilapia.”

He said the Methane gas popping out from the lake does not allow tilapia to grow. Only sardine can survive in the deep water where they feed from natural food.

With 26,752 tons of fish harvested per year, fish contribution to the country’s GDP is 0.5%.

Lake Kivu, about 2,700 square kilometers, produces 80% of this harvest and mostly sardine and a few tilapia. On average, a single tilapia fish in Lake Kivu measures not more than 500gm.

This creates a gap in fish supply on the market. Rutaganira says Rwanda imports approximately 20,000 tons of fresh and smoked fish from Uganda and Tanzania to fill the gap. Some other frozen fish is imported from as far as China.

A Rwandan consumes 2.5 kilograms of fish per year, according to the Rwanda Institute of Statistics, compared to 4 kg and 6 kg in Burundi and Uganda respectively.

Egypt which depends on foreign countries’ water, every citizen consumes on average 10 kg per annum. Rwanda, like most African countries, need more fish intake for protein. The World Health Organization recommends 14.9 kg per capita annually.

To bridge this gap, Rwanda is just abandoning the fish ponds system, because they require use of wetlands that are on high demand for agriculture.

Traditional fishing on lakes is also dying out.

The country is embracing a new technology of floating cages, whereby fish are enclosed in cages on different lakes.

It is now widely applied on Lake Kivu and is being taken to other lakes such as Muhazi in the Eastern Province.

Floating cages allow farmers to create a condition of feeding fish from industrial floating feeds. This intends to make Rwandan lakes livable for tilapia.

“We want to maximize our lakes’ capacity to produce a million ton of fish annually, five years from now,” Rutaganira told KT Press.

Getting started

Under the new methods of fish rearing, a farmer needs to have a hatchery, a food processing plant and a fish farming concession where to place the cages.

Musomandera has got it all. At his Kibuye village, he owns two fishing ponds, where he installed a hatchery. In the ponds, 50 young female fish and 25 male fish are grouped in five net cages.

On the shore, he mounted a food processing plant that processes and blends rice, oil fish, silver fish, maize, cassava flour and other ingredients.

Every cage is fed with estimated 2 kg of the blended food per day. The feeds which smell like fish are quite nutritious and help fish to produce eggs 25 days later, and to sustain its 3 month reproduction cycle. Fish produces 10% of their weigh every cycle.

Selling Lake Kivu, the way out

Baby fish, technically called finger rings, spend three months in an incubator, before being transported to the Lake’s floating cages through a cold container supported with an oxygen cylinder.

Musomandera is part of pioneers in this technology. Since the last two years, he has acquired over 30 cages of eight and 25 cubic meters respectively at an estimated Rwf400, 000 each.

He placed them in part of his 3.5 hectare fish farming concession on Lake Kivu. “Acquiring fish farming concession is much easier than obtaining a piece of land,” says Musomandera.

All it takes is to go to your favourite lake and choose your convenient place. Then you apply for a 10 year concession from the Ministry of Natural Resources, upon payment of Rwf35,000 and technical advice from Rwanda Agriculture Board.

The main requirement, says Rutaganira, is to stay away from others’ territory on the lake. A cage can accommodate between 2000 to 5000 finger rings of 10grams each. They can weigh about 500grams each six months later. A kilogram of fish is sold at Rwf2500.

The government is currently encouraging investors to embrace the floating cage technology. Development Bank of Rwanda (BRD) has allocated Rwf3 billion to finance private initiatives in this sector.

However, Rutaganira still needs more. He told KT Press, if they had Rwf5 billion now, they could produce 130,000 tons annually with ease.

Farmers like Musomandera are ready to make this happen. “We can bring fish imports to zero in a couple of years.”

Rwandans have begun preparations for the 22^nd commemoration of the genocide against Tutsi.

This Friday, members of survivors’ organizations AERG and GAERG launched various activities under theAERG/GAERG Week to support vulnerable genocide survivors.

Activities started in Bugesera district, 30 minutes’ drive from Rwanda’s capital Kigali.

Members of AERG/GAERG kick-started support activities in Nyamata and Ntarama sectors of Bugesera including; building houses, establishing kitchen gardens and offering cattle to the needy survivors.

Other members cleaned the surrounding of the Nyamata genocide memorial site. About 5,000 Tutsi sought refuge in Ntarama Church running away from the Intarahamwe Hutu Militias.

AERG/GAERG members drove to Bugesera early morning, built a house for an elderly genocide widow in Kayumba cell, in Nyamata sector and repaired other houses.

In Ntarama sector, Cyugaro cell, they also helped repair and plaster a house and prepared a kitchen garden for another elderly survivor.

These activities will continue up to April 2.

Bugesera district is one of the places that experienced extreme atrocities before and during the genocide.

On April 15, 1994 Hutu Militias broke into Nyamata church and slaughtered every person many of whom women and children.

Agents of an extremist political party CDR-Coalition pour la Défense de la République hunted down Tutsi from their homes in Bugesera.

Charles Bandora, Pastor Jean Uwinkindi and Gervais Ngombwa are some of the notorious genociders that have been prosecuted for commanding the killings in Bugesera.

Jean Uwinkindi has been sentenced to life in prison for crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Today Ntarama memorial center is a learning centre for future generations about the genocide. At this center, survivors and visitors can honour the victims of genocide against Tutsi.

Ntarama Church is now a memorial, it never returned to being a church. Inside, light filters through holes in the walls of the church made by grenades.

Bodies of victims were removed from inside the church and given a decent burial in two mass graves located behind the church.

Clothing of the victims hang from the rafters and personal belongings including, pens, pots, sleeping mats, glasses and books lay in piles in the front of the church, near the alter.

Meanwhile after reparing his house, Anastase Ngaboyamahina, 58, who lost his wife and his four children during the genocide he told KT Press that, “My house was such dilapidated that when it rained, I was afraid it would collapse on us. I thank God for sending me Good Samaritans.”