Friday, April 27, 2012

Murakoze cyane





Murakoze cyane. . .

The dawn chorus of local roosters and song birds has begun. It will be another full day as I wind up this stint at Gardens for Health. Two months has flown by.

The week was a bit hectic with another graduation and enrollments of new children and mamas for the next cycle of training comprised much of the week. I managed to get quite a few good shots with the use of Julie’s great camera…to be posted later.

THANK YOU to ALL who donated for my birthday appeal. The final tally is still being processed, but it will be around the $3000 mark! I am so touched and happy by everyone’s support. The flip chart and training materials fund is officially a reality.

As I said in yesterday’s staff meeting…”Murakoze cyane, tozusubira, not au revoir” (bits of Kinyarwanda, Kurindi, English and French)…”Thank you very much, see you later…not goodbye.”

Julie has this up in her office and I find it summarizes my personal aspirations.
“Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.” –From  Tuesdays with Morrie 



 I feel so grateful having been part of this extraordinary Gardens for Health community and having had the opportunities here.

Next week at this time I will be in Alaska with Robert and Ian, a difficult concept to get my head around at this very moment, but I am excited.
Helen

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Graduation celebrations. . .

This is my next to last week here at Gardens for Health (GHI). It has been full and exciting as another 14 week cycle of health and agriculture trainings wrap up for about 90 mamas at our three partner health centers. Husbands, friends and future enrollees joined for the festive graduation celebrations too. It's has been truly inspiring, completely reinforcing why I love being here, as well as experiencing the essence of the good work being done by all the staff.

As we all gather, the informal greeting session takes awhile. In Rwanda it’s customary for everyone to greet everyone else with hugs or a handshake, which is more like a slapping of hands, even if the last meeting was very recent. It’s a part of the culture that is very endearing to me.

We dive into the important task of ongoing data collection, getting heights and weights of all the children, as well as asking mamas a couple of questions for follow up. This is vital for program monitoring and evaluation. Working as a cohesive team, we managed to accomplish this potentially chaotic task with a streamlined strategy.

After an introduction and welcome from Solange (who has just received the thrilling news that she will be a Global Health Corps fellow next year at GHI), the health educators, Annonciata, Claire, Florence and Naomi performed three skits. These convey culminating messages of the health trainings, including: malnutrition, nutrition, family planning, HIV, and issues around gender based violence. The skits are regular weekly activities that convey the training topic of the week and are always a favourite and effective teaching strategy. The health educators are terrific, switching roles of husband, mama, community health worker and neighbor, captivating the standing room only audiences. It’s fantastic to witness their professional growth and knowledge as trainers since I first arrived here last October.

After remarks from the local VIP guests, the certificates were handed out with the mamas’ savings envelopes. At each training session mamas are encouraged to save money every week, which augments the specific training on finance and savings management. At graduation GHI adds 1000RWF to each envelope.

The graduating mamas are grateful for the new knowledge they have acquired because of the GHI program. Testimonials are especially wonderful to hear…

"All trainings were important to me but mostly was knowing that I can plan how many children I will have and when I will have each kid. Family planning to me is a solution to mamas and help us to become younger." Annonciata from Ngiryi

“When you cultivate you use less money and can eat a balanced meal. I use the 4
colors…. Before GHI I didn’t know the importance of mixing foods. Now I spread the information. Before, it was just ibirayi or just matoke. My children now choose foods with nutrition. Other children refuse that food. I eat yellow and red and green. Before, I didn’t. Soaking the beans was a good trick I learned. I earn time and better health.”- Liberée

The new graduates express their gratitude to GHI and the educators with songs, dancing and offerings of their harvests in the traditional Rwandan baskets. The festivities ratchet up a few notches when one mama with a baby swaddled on her back starts pounding on a drum with great fervor. Taking video and photos behind a veil of tears is tricky, but it was all extremely moving.

Chickens or rabbits (depending on the mama’s choice) are distributed, as well as papaya, avocado and guava trees. Refreshments, peanuts and bananas provide sustenance for what is for most of the families a long walk home.

Next week, enrollments for the next cycle begin and the foundation for eliminating malnutrition in Rwanda becomes more expansive and stronger. I am forever grateful to have the opportunity to work with all these extraordinary and committed individuals.

Thank you to everyone who has responded to my birthday appeal for funding assistance for flip chart lamination of the training materials. Your donation is direct, sustainable, practical and vital.

With gratitude and love,
Helen




Naomi & Florence getting weights

Sweet ballerina being measured

Mamas know breast is best

Mama educators before skits

Naomi, Annonciata & Cedric in skit

Happy Graduate

Heading home with chickens

Happy mama with seedlings


Ngiryi Graduate


Ngiryi dancing


Mama drummer

Mama Prince & Solange with colour wheel

Naomi receiving gifts from grateful mamas

More dancing

Rabbits!

Claire, Florence, Helen & Naomi

Ngiryi Graduates

Graduates heading home


Long walk home loaded with
chickens plants and children

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Turi Kumwe. . .

Turi Kumwe, the Rwandan phrase for ‘we are together’, was truly embodied yesterday with Solange Impano and friends. It was a day to remember with such a range of intense emotions for all of us who accompanied Solange to the place where she witnessed, as an eleven year old, the killing of her mother by the Hutu militia eighteen years ago. Solange had shared her genocide survivor story with me in October 2011 when I first arrived at Gardens for Health, but being with her as she retold and relived the series of events that week in April 1994 was deeply moving as well as inspiring.

A few months ago Solange had determined that she felt emotionally ready to return to her hometown of Kibuye for the first time with friends to share the commemoration and leave flowers at the church. Ever since, she has been planning the day with attention to every detail. Yesterday it all unfolded and became a reality which was very healing for her. Fathoming the incomprehensible events of those 100 days when 800,000 people were massacred makes one question many aspects of humanity.

Solange with her nine year old daughter Liza, and eighteen of her close friends crammed into a mutatu (large van/mini bus) early in the morning and drove three hours through the verdant Rwandan countryside to Kibuye on the shores of Lake Kivu. We were dressed in the appropriate purple and black mourning attire. En route we passed several large parades of people walking solemnly in the streets commemorating the anniversary.

Upon arrival in Kibuye Solange led our group up the road to the church where 10,000 people had sought refuge from the Hutus, including Solange and her mother. That ‘refuge’ turned out to be a Hutu ruse, as almost all were eventually slaughtered indiscriminately. Her tears were contagious as she told her riveting and soul wrenching story with deep emotion and detail, interspersed with historical anecdotes outside of the church. A warm breeze enveloped us as we all stood in a circle around Solange with the beauty of Lake Kivu as our backdrop. In the bus to Kibuye she had asked us to write our definition of freedom. With remarkable ability and poise she turned her story into a lesson for all of us about the luxury and value of freedom as she read our words from the small folded papers clutched in her fist.

Later we walked from the church to her house where she shared happy childhood memories as well as the horror of her mother’s death. Afterwards we walked through the town of Kibuye to the home of Ancila for a poignant reunion. Ancila is the extraordinary woman who took Solange into her home and raised her as her own daughter, protecting her from the Hutu’s madness. We all gathered on benches on her verandah and listened to Ancila’s story. Ancila was a Tutsi, but married to Hutu and had five children who were also Hutus, and as a result they protected her, but were also prominent perpetrators of murder in Kibuye. Solange completed the story, as Ancila was too humble to relay her intractable and courageous acts that helped save Solange’s life. Ancila had managed to alter Solange’s ethnicity to Hutu on the school records, thereby saving her life.

Driving back in the van we were all emotionally drained, but also felt a close bond from sharing the day’s intensity. Naomi, Claire and Annonciata sang lovely Kinyarwandan gospel songs that soothed us as we wended our way back to Kigali. It will be a day to process for a long while.

Thank you, Solange. It’s an honor to be your friend and learn from your courage, resilience, wisdom and love of life.

Helen



Matatu filled to the brim

Memorial procession


Walking to the church


Walking to the church



View of Lake Kivu from the church


Never again. . .


Solange & Liza



Turi Kumwe




Solange & Ancila