Can you imagine supporting a family of four on less than $1 a day? That has been the experience of Josephine Nyirandekwe, a 45 year old widow raising three children and an adopted orphan. Her story is fairly typical in a country of over half a million orphans where 60% of the population lives on less than $1 dollar per day.Josephine is one of the entrepreneurs in a charity my family and some friends started called Microseeds.org. (Microseeds.org provides small, zero interest loans of $50 to women in Rwanda to help them break out of the grip of extreme poverty). In June I traveled to Rwanda to get a first-hand look at the difference Microseeds is making in people’s lives.
I arrived in Kigali (the Capitol City) at 4:00am after a two day flight from Houston. At 9:00am that morning I met with the Director of the program in Rwanda, Rev. Theophile Rugubira. Pastor Theophile is a gentle, thin, well dressed, middle-aged man with a contagious smile. We’ve been friends since my first trip to Rwanda in December 2006.
Pastor Theophile does not own a car. Only the upper 5% of the population in Rwanda have cars. So we jumped into a taxi operated by one of his friends—a small, innocuous car with at least a million miles on it –and off we went!
As I toured the city I was struck by all the hills. Rwanda is described as “terre de mille collines” (“the land of a thousand hills”). In the rural areas the hills are lush and dotted with a patchwork of small farms—not unlike the tropical forests of Central America. In Kigali, these hills are covered with buildings. The architecture reflects the strange juxtaposition of tall glass skyscrapers in the center of the city, surrounded by a sea of single story, flat roofed hovels made of mud and stucco, where the average Rwandans live.
On our way to visit some entrepreneurs in the Microseeds program we drove by the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre. As most Americans know, Rwanda is emerging from the aftermath of the 1994 genocide. During the genocide over eight hundred thousand of its citizens were slaughtered in a period of 100 days. The Rwandan genocide was one of the most brutal examples of ethnic extermination in modern times. Entire families were lost and tens of thousands of children were orphaned. It left the country broken and bleeding.
Today the UN lists Rwanda near the bottom of its Human Development Index, where it ranks 161 of 177 nations worldwide. Rwanda’s low ranking is a result of the strikingly low life expectancy (49 years) and low measures in the areas of adult literacy, primary and secondary school enrollment, GDP per capita, access to clean water, and the high number of underweight children.
Despite the genocide fifteen years ago and the low development in the country, Rwanda is a nation of hope. New roads have been constructed, new universities have opened, the economy has grown, the Church is active and reconciliation is slowly progressing.
However, access to credit is still a problem for most Rwandans—especially given the current Global Credit Crisis. Predominantly agrarian, the population has limited access to commercial bank loans and services, lacking necessary collateral and is generally considered unbankable by formal banks. Microfinance institutions have begun filling the disparity between the demand for credit and savings, and the supply of services. However, the interest rates charged on loans by Microfinance institutions (generally 23%-35% annually) is still prohibitive to many of the Rwandan poor. By offering a program of zero interest loans Microseeds fills an urgent need by providing credit to those least likely to receive it; and in so doing provides a first step out of poverty for some of the poorest of the poor.
Pastor Theophile and I finally arrived at our destination – a poor community on a hillside, on the west side of Kigali. We walked into a small house where a group of women were waiting for us. Each one was a member of the program and had received a loan. We were welcomed warmly, with a traditional embrace and a gentle “Muraho” (“Hello” in the local dialect of Kinyarwandan). Most of the women were widows. Virtually all had four to six children. Some had adopted orphans. Some were infected with HIV. Most had never received a loan before. We sat down and one by one I heard their stories.
When Josephine stood up to share her story, I knew something special had happened in her life. You could see it in her eyes. She shared her story in a very simple way. “My name is Josephine, I am 45 years old, widow, mother of four. With my loan I purchased some beans, sold them in the market, with the profit I bought some goats.” I knew that there was more to it than that, so after the meeting I spoke with Josephine personally. What I discovered is that Josephine made the equivalent of $200 US selling beans with the $50 loan. She spent $80 to pay for her children’s school fees (it costs $20-$30 per year to send a child to school in Rwanda and many poor families cannot afford to pay the fees, so their children never go to school). With the extra money Josephine bought a pregnant goat and food. After the goat gave birth, she sold the goats for $25 each. Then she bought a male goat (in Rwanda they eat goats, so breeding and selling goats is a good source of income).
After speaking with Josephine the thought ran though my mind, “If she was living in Silicon Valley, she would give Bill Gates a run for his money!” Beyond her obvious entrepreneurial success, what struck me the most was her sense of dignity and optimism. She had hit this one out of the ball park and she knew it. As a mother, she had found a way to provide for her children. She had begun to dream again. Yes, she had endured the genocide, yes, the odds were stacked against her and her children, but perhaps…just perhaps…all the dreams she has for a better life for her children were possible after all.After our conversation she thanked me profusely for the program and for the lender who provided her the loan. I thanked her for her time and for the opportunity to meet her. As we said our goodbyes, she asked me one last question. With a glimmer in her eye, she asked, “When will it be possible to get a larger loan?” I smiled, and she laughed.
Scott A. Stephens
July 2009
Microseeds.org is a ministry of Meme Stephens Ministries, a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization. For more information please visit www.microseeds.org.
