Until about six years ago, Etienne Mungwakunzwe lived a deplorable life, regularly failing to meet his family obligations. The father of one says he could not sustain his life as poverty was haunting him.

"I was very desperate,” Mungwakunzwe confesses. "Because I could not afford a mituelle de Santé (health insurance), I just assumed that I would never fall ill, just to give my self a peace of mind.” But the life Mungwakunzwe lived pushed local leaders and fellow residents to select him among the first beneficiaries of the Girinka programme, better known as the One-Cow-Per-Family project.In 2007, just a year after the programme was introduced, Mungwakuzwe received a Friesian cow and this became a strong foundation for a more improved and sustained life. "I no longer belong to the category of those considered as poor or vulnerable,” Mungwakuzwe, a resident of the rural Raranzige Cell in Rusenge Sector, says as he stares at two cows and other livestock he rears today. After receiving the cow, Mungwakuzwe says he immediately knew it was time to ‘relaunch’ his life.  With proceeds from his cow, he bought a farmland. Living in an area where soils are infertile and unfavourable to many crops, Mungwakunzwe uses the cowdung to improve his field. As his efforts continued to pay off, he also started acquiring other small animals to sustain his gains. Apart from two cows he owns today, Mungwakuzwe also rears rabbits, chickens and pigs and owns a banana plantation. "There is a significant difference between my past life and the way I am living today,” he says. "I wouldn’t have made such achievements had I not received a cow six years ago. Whenever I look ahead, I have a clear vision of where I am headed.” "Poverty deprives one of the capacities to think of how they can better their lives and plan accordingly. But, when you get a chance and you are shown the way out [of poverty], you start thinking of how to sustain and improve your gains so as to avoid sinking back anymore.”  Socio-economic transformation The tale of Mungwakuzwe is just one of the many success stories of people whose lives improved after receiving a cow or other donations in kind from government and other well-wishers. Like Mungwakuzwe, some 754 vulnerable people have benefitted from the Girinka programme in Rusenge Sector since 2006 when the programme was introduced, according to local officials. The statistics stand at more than 7,200 animals distributed in the Nyaruguru District over the same period of time. And the efforts are paying off. According to local officials, Girinka programme is supporting efforts to raise local residents from poverty towards improved living conditions.  "When a cow comes to a family, poverty moves away,” says Valens Rushingwankiko, the Rusenge Sector executive secretary. "Cows provide families with opportunities to have milk, both for the matter of nutrition and money making. They also provide manure which boost agriculture production.”  Statistics from district authorities indicate that ever since the programme was introduced, the district has been on the move-with its population moving massively out of poverty. Back in 2006, 85 per cent of Nyaruguru residents were under the line of poverty, according to the district mayor, Francois Habitegeko. But the numbers decreased to about 61 per cent in 2011, he adds. Habitegeko attributes the improvement to Girinka and other developmental programmes, including the Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme, among others. "We have made an impressive improvement in poverty reduction,” Habitegeko says. "But the road ahead is still too long. The target is to reduce the number of people under the line of poverty to at least 30 per cent by 2017.”  According to the mayor, Girinka has contributed a lot in reducing the level of malnutrition among children. Improved healthMalnutrition in children under five has decreased from 5.8 per cent to 0.23 per cent, last year, according to Habitegeko. "They [children] have milk [thanks to Girinka] and the cows have contributed to increasing agriculture production, thanks to the extensive use of manure,” he adds.Apart from the socio-economic impact on the lives of local residents, Habitegeko says Girinka also played a critical role in improving local people’s mindset towards their role in eradicating poverty. "After realising the impact of a cow, some people started buying cows on their own while others organised in small informal groups and started internal schemes to distribute the animals amongst themselves,” Habitegeko notes. "That, eventually, pushed them outside those considered as vulnerable.” Statistics indicate that more than 130,000 families have benefited from the One Cow Per poor Family programme since its inception in 2006, according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal resources.The target is to reach 350,000 families by 2015.