Fifth Week in Cyangugu

This was the last week to finalise all the paperwork for the Cooking Stoves Project. Between Monday to Wednesday, we went to Mundima and Gatovu village to complete the selection of the 50 houses who would be receiving the Rondereza stove. 

On Monday, we created criteria for selection of the households. We planned to visit both Mundima and Gatovu village but due to poor weather, we were only able to visit Mundima village. As usual, we were accompanied by Michael (RDIS Facilitator), he is gradually becoming a part of ICS Cyangugu. So we selected half of the 25 beneficiaries from the survey, twelve or thirteen who met the criteria. We chose the rest of the beneficiaries on this visit.

On Tuesday, we went to Gatovu village to do the selection of the beneficiaries. Assisted by Jane, the village leader; we selected thirteen beneficiaries who met the criteria. In the evening, we sat down to collate the data we had collected and finalised the 50 beneficiaries from both villages. We had a team meeting to discuss the progress of the project, as we have been waiting for news about the source of some resources. 

On Wednesday, we visited the villages to inform the leaders about the selection of trainees/animators. We chose to select four from each village, because the village leaders wanted to be a part of the training. Joan, our lovely ICS In-Country Manager came to visit us from Kigali. She was with us from Wednesday to Friday afternoon. 

During her visit, we visited Mundima village when the cooking stoves project was introduced to members of the village. Sam was the main speaker because as RDIS Co-ordinator he is involved in most of the projects. 

Sam explaining the project at the village meeting in Mundima

Valentin assists Sam in presenting the Rondereza, Joan is on the extreme right

It was very beneficial to formally introduce the project to the people, it definitely gave them a knowledge of who we were. We had visited the village several times during the past three weeks and the people were always curious to the purpose of our visits.

The meeting went well, people asked questions, made suggestions and some decided they would like to contribute some materials. Sam did a great job, he delivered the information effectively and to our surprise, all the people received the project positively. It is unfortunate that only 25 households would benefit from the improved cooking stoves but we are hoping that if all goes well, people would embrace the cooking stoves, mainly because of the health benefits and the benefits for the environment. We left Gatovu at around 5:30 and arrived home in time for dinner.

Joan was with us for another day so on Friday, she joined us for lunch and unfortunately had to leave that afternoon. There had been a power cut since Thursday on she had some work to do so she left a day early for Kigali. On Saturday, Valentin went to help at the feeding clinic, the rest of us went to town with Speciose; our cook.

As usual Sunday was a day for worship and for us to reflect on the events of the week as well as to plan for the week ahead. It was a great end to the week; we were going to start training soon and begin work, how exciting!

-         -  Claudia