In 2008 a group of energetic individuals, who shared a love for Africa and a passion to help bring a better standard of living to deserving communities came together to set up a project to help a rural Rwandan community – Abana UK.
Alison Hawksley and Andrew Gerrie of Lush went out to Rwanda to find out for themselves about the work of Abana UK. They wrote this report.
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Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa with about 10 million people occupying 25,000 sq. km. A landlocked country bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rwanda is a poor rural country with about 90% of the population engaged in (mainly subsistence) agriculture. Few natural resources and minimal industry. Primary foreign exchange earners are coffee and tea.
The long standing rivalry between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples erupted into a politically fuelled genocide attempt in 1994 when the Hutu government supported a 3 month rampage that took nearly 1 million lives. Coupled with a feeble response from the international community this is one of humanity’s true low points.
The new Tutsi dominated government has made progress in introducing a democratic system and returning the country to a stable state, however, many challenges remain and many a grievance still simmers below the surface.
Although extremely poor, the people we saw displayed a great work ethic, a sense of purpose, and most can carry a Range Rover on their heads.
Last year we gave a grant to Abana to help fund the re-building of a school in a remote village. No roads, no power but plenty of children and more smiles than you could point a camera at.
The Rugerero School now has 8 new classrooms and accommodates about 1,000 students.
Alongside 3 other couples, whom had also donated funds to the charity, we were lucky enough to visit the school for a ceremony to celebrate the works completed so far.
The speeches and dances were fantastic. Fortunately for everyone we were not encouraged to dance.
New buildings and facilities are great but real success here should be measured in education provided. This year the school 31 out of 35 children passed the national test (UK year 6 equivalent) to gain entry to high school. This was against a prior year pass rate of 6 children. A great result, which appropriately resulted in bonuses for 3 of the teachers.
Abana also supports a group of Nuns who run a medical centre and have set up a sewing school which aims to provide disadvantaged teenage girls with a skill so they have some form of income. The Nuns’s latest project is to set up a bakery to provide an additional income source and to teach another skill set to a new group of people. A further donation to the bakery project secured the naming rights. “Nuns Buns” should be pushing out hot loaves soon.
Great to see our Charity Pot funds in action.
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To find out more about Abana’s work, please visit www.abana.org.uk.
