In a different world

Thursday we visited several places in the district of Ruyigi where the Red Cross is working.

First stop was one of the 926 OVC’s families. They got help because they were so poor that they didn’t have a house to live in. They got a house with a small kitchen and a small toilet outside. The girl the Red Cross had selected was 8 years old, and she had her school uniform on. We tried to get some words out of her to hear how she liked school etc, but she was to shy to talk to us. To many white people on the same time.

This family was so poor that Red Cross has bult a house for them, and the eldest daughter gets support to go to school.

Approximately 500 meters from the house the Burundi and the Norwegian Red Cross had made a water source. This year they will make 65 of these sources. 60 are now finishd and the last 5 will be done by the end of November. This source helps more than 350 people. It was very nice for us to see how happy they were to have clean water and that a whole community benefits from the help that the Red Cross gives to this family.

The Red Cross delegation and the father of the household that is supported by the project.

A water source of this type costs around 1000 $ to make, it takes only 7 days for them to make it, including that they have to carry all the materials down hill for 1 Km. The mason who is the leader of building the water source gets 200 $ for each source in salary. He has 3 people to help him, but also a lot of volunteers.

They also build stands in sement to wash clothes near the water source, so that people do not have to carry water for this purpose to their homes.

Several of us drank the water, and it was fresh and tasted very nice.

Stig Ove from Lefdal is tasting the water and it was surprisingly good

Second stop was on a ”small” school, wich has 599 students. It was a very big experience for all of us to see all those happy childeren. When we came a group of girls supported by the OVC project started to dance and singing, and all the 599 children flocked around us and were very curious.

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"Dancing queens"

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At the school we looked at som latrines that the Red Cross had built for the children. Earlier the 600 children had to share 3 ”toilets” and now they have 12. Hygiene is a big challenge in the area, and they are not used to washing either themselves or their clothes. Part of the program is to teach them about the importance of washing their hands after they have been to the toilet and what inpact that has on their health situation. The school had a pipe with running water in the school yard where the students could drink and wash their hands, which was very positive.

Happy children at waterpipe

In the next school they were also building new latrines and a foundation for a 5000 litre water tank where they will collect rain water. Again the children were extatic and exited to see the Muzungo’s. They were hanging out of the windows with big smiles on their faces. We took some pictures inside the class room, and they were screaming when the blitz went off wondering what that was.

They have to dig deep to make the latrine last for 25 years

Last stop was a village where a lot of the children were orphans and they were very poor. Here, Red Cross had invested in 60 goats to support the people in the village. Some had died due to lack of veterinarian services, but they had traded some of the goats for a few cows and now they have 80 goats and a few cows to suppport them with milk and meat. They had also received seed to sow crops, and some of the crops they sell on the market. They have actually managed to save around 36 000 NOK in their bank account and are now able to buy veterinarian services for the animals and medicine/doctor and school uniforms and materials for the children. They have also bought a few bicycles for the voluneteers to e abe to get around and for patient transportation to the doctor etc.

Red Cross "ambulance"

The regional manager for the area was very proud of what they had accomplished, and he really should be. They have now created a sustainable life for all the families in the village. There were a lot of volunteers that helped out in this community, and they do a fantastic job.

The volunteers help the most vulnerable children and families in the district

Transport stage in Burundi on Wednesday

A very early start (4 am) at the hotel in Kigali to go to the airport to fly Rwanda Air to Burundi. Surprisingly new and nice aiplane, so we felt quite safe.

Upon arrival in Bujumbura, which is the capital of Burundi, we were met and welcomed by the Burundi Red cross delegation, led by Alexi, who took us to the Red Cross headquarter. Here we were introduced to the OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) program in which water and sanitation plays a big part.

Then we hit the road, and the drive was quite an experience. It was a long ride, but whith all the impressions we got, 4 hours in a packed small jeep, bumby roads and a near death experience the time went quite fast.
On the trip we saw beautiful nature wih high hills and deep valleys where every inch was used for growing crops.

The ride to the top

There were more people than cars on the roads and those who had a bicyle, could catch a ride at the back of the big trucks going up the long hills, paying the drivers a small amount of money to get to the top. They were really pleaying with their lives!
There were people everywhere along the road, walking, biking, carrying heavy loads on their heads or bicycles, and women always with a baby on their backs.

10 km up a steep mountain with this heavy load of coal.

Children going to school (sometimes for as long as 10 km) and people selling everything – and we mean EVERYTHING from the roadside. We have never seen so many store managers in one day, selling their goods from small sheds of maximum 1 m2.

These markets are everywhere along the road

The further we got from the city, the more of an attraction we became, as it was in Rwanda. They very rearly see white people, and children were waving and shouting MZUNGU when we passed.

The last 40 km were REALLY bad roads, and we will never complain about bad roads in Scandinavia again. If you had kidney stones, they would be back in their original position by the end of that ride! It took 1 hour and 45 minutes to drive 40 km and we were happy to get there alive.

When we arrived we had a meeting with the local Red Cross and the local project manager gave a great presentation of what kind of work they have done and are doing in their commmunity.

The focus here is OVC, which means that they take care of orphans and the most vounerable children and their families giving them school materials and uniforms, houses, and of course clean water. In addition they teach the children how to socialize, how to help others and actually how to play. Some of them have psychosocial challenges due to what they have experienced.

926 children are part of the program, and this benefits the whole community, since they also get clean water and new houses. Many families “adopt” the orphans and care for them in their own homes, and they are supported by the program.

A list of all the chldren that are part of the OVC program in Ruyigi

Burundi Red Cross is a very young organisation, but they have made huge progress since they officially started in 2006, both in terms of organisational development and number of volounteers, which actually amounts to 200.000 people in the whole country (!) working in their communities and villages to help their neighbours.

We were really impressed with all the good work that they are doing, and they were also very grateful for our contributions.

After that it was present time. We has brought caps, footballs, ball pumps, football suits and handball jerseys from Norway, and we gave them two big suitcases full that they could use for the events that the organize for the children in the program. So now it will de Skeid football against Fjellhammer handball in Ruyigi.

The local Project Manager in a Norwegian football suit.

We were invited to dinner togehter with both the national and local representatives, but there was no electricity, so we sat in the dark with candles on the table (actually it was quite cozy). We had a great time and shared a lot of information and experiences, and the food was really good.

We were told that the electricity came and went randomly and that they never knew when it would come back. It could be tonight or maybe tomorrow.

After a couple of beers we decided to sing the Elkjøp song for them, and it must have sounded really bad because after the song the power came back on so that they could play music from their transistor radio instead.

Accommodation was at a local hostel, and the standard was not great, but better than expected. Our biggest fear was the malaria mosquitos, but there were nets around the beds so we were OK. Stig Ove had a Gekko on the wall in his room, and that took care of his mosquitos ;o).

Burundi next stop

Up at five o’clock today, but ready for another day in Africa!
We are now at Kigali Aiirport heading for Bujumbura, te capital of Burundi.

We are told that probably there willl be no Internett there, so we will not be able to post any blogs for a couple of days. Hopefully the information is wrong so please check anyway.

Interesting day in the field

The original water source

From this tank near the source the water will be pumped up to the top of the hill. The pump will be driven by a generator since there is no electricity at this point.

Workers digging a trench for the pipeline down fom the mountain

Today we spent the whole day out in the field with the local Red Cross representatives and visited a big water project in the Nyanza district a couple of hours drive south of Kigali.

First of all, this really is a beatiful country with green hills and lots of vegetation. Also in the rural areas, everything is clean and tidy and most of the land is well organized farmland where they grow things like bananas, coffee, tea, rice, kasawa etc.

In the district of Nyanza people have very little drinking water, so there is a big need for clean water. Rwanda red Cross initially had (and still has) a project here for orphans where they support them with things like education, housing and health issues, making sure they have a place to live and learn a profession and are taken care of. There are approximately 3000 orphans due to different reasons, mostly HIV/AIDS.

It was therefore natural for them also to look at the water issue in this area, and since November last year they have been working on a water project that initially will give water to 7000 people, and in a longer perspective, even more.

They have found a place in a valley where they can collect water from several natural sources and lead it to one spring where peole can get water. But many live far from this spring, and they therefore build water pipes and a pump to transport the water 5 km in distance and 230 m up to the top of a mountain, in order to spread the water down to 7 different “kiosks” where people can collect water against a small fee.

This is a huge task, and all the labour is done manually, including carrying the water pipes on their head several kilometers and digging deep trenches to put the pipes in.

The Waterpipe is connected piece by piece

The workers that do this job work on a day to day basis, and the salary is aproximately 2 USD per day.
The terrain does not allow for heavy machinery, and the people need the work, so this is a good way to do it, but it takes a lot of time. The project should be finished in December, so it will be a nice Christmas present for the people of Nyanza.

We are being treated like royals, people are waving to us as we drive by and the children are shouting “Muzungu” which means “white people” when we are outside the cities, and they run after us and gather round us wherever we are. We asked the children at the water source to sing a song for us and our eyes got all wet as they startet to sing the national song of Rwanda.
The local Red Cross and the local Authorities are very grateful for the contribution that all the Elkjøp chains in Scandinavia are making.
It was really impressive to see what they have been able to achieve here in Rwanda, and they take their pride in making the constructons not only functional, but also nice to look at as you can see from the pictures.

From this tank on top of the hill the water will be spread out to the seven water kiosks in th area.

We have had a lot of impressions today and it will take time to digest e verything.

We had a nice dinner at a restaurant near our hotel, but it will be an early night tonight as we have to leave at 05:00 for the airport tomorrow to fly to Burundi. Here we will see a different way of getting to the water, and we are really looking forward to it.

Genocide Memorial

250000 mennesker ligger begravet på senteret, og det blir stadig flere som hentes fra massegraver rundt Kiigali.

Utsikt over Kigali. Byen består av en rekke åser og ligger på vel 1500 moh

Idag har hela truppen besøkt Genocide Memorial, Det ær en minnesplats før folkmorden som skedde 1994 och det var en upplevelse med blandade kænslor. Att ta sig igenom vandringen och læsa om allt som hænt och bevittna rester av massakern utan att kunna gøra något åt den saken idag, det var jobbigt. Men det gav också en tanke om att det aldrig får hænda igen. Efter det reste vi runt med bil før att få en inblick i hur invånarna har det.
Det ær mycket folk som rør sig øverallt och vi tog oss till en lokal marknad dær det fanns mat att køpa som vi aldrig tidigare ens tænkt tanken på att køpa.
Ikvæll åt vi middag med General secretary i Rwanda Røde Kors dær vi fick møjlighet att stilla mange frågor kring arbetet med Røda korset, vilket var mycket trivelig.
Nu ær det dags att sova då vi ska åka till Nyanza før att besøka ett av projekten i morgon.

In Kigali

The whole group met up in Amsteram, and we are now safely checked in at Stipp Hotel in Kigali, where we have enjoyed a late dinner after a long flight.

Our first impression of Kigali, having driven from the aiport to the hotel, is that it is very clean and the roads are very good. In Rwanda it is forbidden to use plastic bags, so they avoid the problem with a lot of garbage and plastic lying aroundt like we see in many other cities in Africa.

We are well taken care of by the Norwegian Red Cross Water and sanitation coordinator who is based in Nairobi, Kenya, monitoring and suppporting the local branches who are running the different projects in the region.

Tomorrow we will have a fairly quiet day. We will visit the Genoside Museum here in Kigali and have a dinner meeting with the local General Secretary of the Rwanda Red Cross and his staff in the evening.

Early Tuesday morning we are going out in the field to visit a water and sanitation project in Nyanza, about two hours drive from Kigali, which will be very exiting.

It has been a long day, so we say good night. Luckily, there are good internet conditions so far, so you will hear more from us tomorrow.

From the left; Jani, Stig Ove, Madeleine, Magne, Kjersti, Jeanette (Red Cross) and Thomas.

One day left!

Sunday morning we are leaving for our African adventure, and I am sure the whole group is as exited as I am. All participants are meeting up in Amsterdam before flying to Kigali in Rwanda.

It will be interesting to see how the local Red Cross in Rwanda and Burundi are working together with the Norwegian Red Cross and to see the effects of the water projects that are going on in the two countries.

Many people have bad feelings about Kigali and Rwanda due to the genocide that took place there a few years ago, but now they say it is actually one of the safest capitals in Africa, so no worries.

It is also said that Rwanda is a beautiful country with a lot of hills and stunning nature, so we are really looking forward to driving out into the countryside and see the nature, meet people and see the projects. Talk to you soon! Kjersti