During last week, I visited the different regions that RDIS operates in and worked with the members of staff to understand and implement the performance monitoring model I proposed.
I realised that office work has little priority when it comes to field workers and struggled even just to get them in front of the computer. But when we eventually sat down, I knew they grasped the way of thinking I tried to promote.
A bonus was that the Tearfund representative of Rwanda and Burundi heard about my model and visited me to come and see what it was about. He agreed with the principles and aims to now promote this within other NGO’s in the two countries as well.
In between hard work and long days, I got to see many more very interesting projects, meet amazing Rwandese, hear the word Muzongo (white person) a thousand times from energetic children, and spend time in the beautiful countryside.
I had a training session scheduled with Andrew, and then when I turned up, there were 8 people eagerly awaiting their training. Andrew decided to invite all people in his office. Normally I won’t mind, but this one was a challenge as none of them could understand more than two English words in a row, and most hardly knew how to open an excel document. And I had only 2 hours to bring them up to speed. Needless to say, I didn’t achieve much, especially as I had to be interpreted after every sentence. But they appreciated my effort very much and we agreed that another RDIS staff member (which I already trained properly) will try to carry on with their training at a later stage. Another unique African experience!
I was very privileged to have been invited to a meeting of the bishops of the southern half of the country to show my presentation on my model for monitoring performance. The Anglican church is by far the denomination most actively involved in the community (this is not to promote them, as I’m not Anglican myself, but to commence them on their work and initiatives). They understand that evangelism is not only spreading the gospel by word, but by deed as well. This is why the opportunity to address them on more effectively doing what they are doing has such meaning, because I believe that thereby a vast number of the population will actually be impacted. My presentation was described as challenging and thought provoking – just the reaction I was hoping for!
Anyway, what an experience sitting around a table with such wisdom and insightful development comments flying around. These people know what they are doing. But with a bit of help, their efforts could even achieve manifold more.
Now this is an initiative that I think is highly effective and makes a huge difference to the people right at the bottom. Micro-credit schemes are available all over developing countries now, but loans this way normally are still bound to too rigged regulations and high interest rates for the very poor. So this is where savings and credit groups are able to fulfil in their needs.
People pay a fee to join the group (roughly £10) and then every month they ‘save’ a certain amount (in the order of 10 to 20p). They can take out a loan with an interest rate of 5% to fund resources which will help them to increase their earnings. The interest paid is then distributed to those with savings as their interest earned. The group together decides whether they will grant a loan to a person and because they belong to the same community and realise that their money is used by others, they hold each other accountable for using the loan responsibly, running business activities effectively and repaying on time. Such loans enable the poorest to get off the ground by for example buying two pigs and then selling the piglets to make profit, which could be invested in buying more animals. One person started this way and is now able to rent more land in order to increase his farming activities to the point where he is able to produce more than his family needs and therefore earn income.
More than the purpose of enabling loans, this activity also encourages people to save for future needs where they would have spent their cash immediately upon receipt in the past, and therefore fosters responsible use of money. I’d like to see every person in the poorest communities belong to such a group within the next two years.
A grassroot church is a group of people gathering in someone’s house on a weekly basis (other names known in other countries are cell/home/small groups). Most of the country is classified as Christian, but this proofed to mean little as a vast number of ‘Christians’ partook in the genocide killings. Naturally, after the genocide, there was much division, hatred and conflict between people in the same community as neighbours and believers turned against each other during the massacre. Reconciliation between people is attempted by the government through grassroot courts, held every Tuesday, where suspect genocide participants are trialled by their community, people are given the opportunity to ask forgiveness and people are encouraged to forgive. Though, this process proofs slow success. RDIS introduced the grassroot church concept to facilitate real spiritual growth of Christians which naturally leads to fruits of reconciliation, forgiveness and unity. A group of people meet once a week at someone’s house to read and learn from the bible, pray for each other’s needs, talk about issues in the community, share testimonies of God’s work and, of course, sing as only Africans can. During our field visits this week, people brought up the topic of grassroot churches frequently and expressed the impact it has had on their lives. One group specifically impressed me. We visited them while they were meeting on the grass/gravel on a hill. Mainly women and all barefoot. Once these women were united by a grassroot church, they realised that they can work together to achieve more and started digging as a group in each other’s land. They also started a savings and credit group which enables them to take out small loans to finance items which could assist them to increase their income. Now to me, this speaks a great deal of the level of reconciliation that the grassroot churches have brought!
During last week, I visited the different regions that RDIS operates in and worked with the members of staff to understand and implement the performance monitoring model I proposed.
