My journey to L’Esperance Children’s Village in Kigarama will go down as the longest (and most tedious) taxi moto ride I have ever embarked on in Rwanda. Let me put it more clearly: the moto ride from the Kibuye bust stage, at which I arrived after a four-hour bus ride from Kigali, cost me all of Rwf5,000!

That’s twice the bus fare from Kigali. Cost aside, it took the best part of 1 hour and 20 minutes of grueling tarmac, skirting almost dangerously across the towering and scenic hills overlooking Lake Kivu, before we mounted the hi-tech orchard that the village is set in.

It is what it takes to get you to the facility, located in Kigarama village, literally in the middle of nowhere. It is not easy for the casual visitor to make the climb to this place, let alone find it on the grid for a number of reasons; who wants to endure all those miles of grueling tarmac, and fork out Rwf5,000 for the ordeal? 

No wonder, most visitors you get will happen to be volunteers and tourists visiting from abroad. For the tourists, it is usually those that are taking a short break from the hectic Congo Nile Trail to recharge their batteries. 

We are touring the vast pineapple fields, part of the facility’s orchard project when I ask Victor Monroy, the director, why an institution such as this would want to "hide” away so far off the beaten track. 

He makes a dramatic spin with which he takes in the panoramic views around the hill, and says: "It is a deliberate policy of L’Esperance Children’s Aid to locate its facilities in abundance of land for agricultural production. Our mission is to feed, house, educate, nourish and teach our beneficiaries life skills and values. 

"What we have here is the land. 10 hectares of it. And I know a little on what to do with that,” says the German-trained Guatemalan agricultural engineer. 

Full of zeal and with an innate and boundless sense of duty, Monroy will engage you the minute you set foot upon the hill. 

The pineapple plantation is part of the 7 hectares dedicated to fruit production under the orchard project. On average, about 60 pineapple fruits are harvested daily, catering for the over 120 children (and staff) at the facility.

Self-sustaining project

This orchard project is just one among the orphanage’s numerous strategies aimed at moving it to self-sufficiency. Besides the pine apples, there are thousands of guava trees planted, such that a permanent and thick scent of ripe guava fruit forever hangs over the air. The story is the same for paw paws, mangoes, bananas, passion fruit, mangoes and avocado. 

While the excess production from pineapples can be sold easily on the local market, the guavas largely go to waste (or to the birds). 

In 2006, a group of astronauts from the Johnson Space Centre (NASA) visited the facility to explore prospects of developing appropriate technology to help humanitarian causes more directly. The team took particular exception to two areas; fruit production and engineering challenges inherent on the hill. 

They set up a low-technology fruit drying unit to test the viability of canning the excess fruit for export. After establishing that the facility could dry fruit for at least a few months of the year, they teamed with Engineers Without Borders to help kick start construction of a fruit processing line that should be up and running by next year. 

Food crops and fruit aside, it also boasts an ambitious, ongoing tree planting campaign that saw a forest of thousands of eucalyptus trees planted on the outlying plains. The smell of fresh eucalyptus buds actually competes with that of ripe guava fruit in setting the tone on the hill. 

Technology hub

Even with the best of intentions, not very much could possibly go on atop an isolated hill in the middle of nowhere, with no running water and electricity. Well, not so for a place that offers formal education, music lessons and numerous vocational skills. As a result, two of the most ambitious social projects at L’Esperance are feats of engineering: the water purification unit that processes 20.000 liters of water per day with solar technology; and the newly installed Solar Unit from Engineers Without Borders (EWB). 

"We are not just running another orphanage. We are setting a trend on how this kind of project needs to be run anywhere in the world; in a self-sustaining way. When an organisation depends on donations alone, you get paralyzed, become passive and lose the ability to take decisions. Our view is that long-term charity causes severe damage to the beneficiary,” says Monroy. 

Other projects like poultry, livestock, tailoring and the choir serve a similar purpose and are similarly fashioned: they are headed by young men and women who have risen through the orphanage’s ranks. And they all serve the orphanage primarily, but with a view to attaining financial self-sufficiency.

But some of the unsung heroes and heroines out of L’Esperance are the girls and boys that constitute the Happiness Choir. 

Comprised of 11 members, it has already achieved a feat enviable to many better established artistes. Started in 2002, the choir may be hardly known in the country but its profile is known internationally (perhaps even beyond). 

Built on the premise that the children would find happiness and hope through music, the choir is one of the best things to happen to this hill, which boasts no internet, TV, and other such trappings of today’s tech-driven world. 

When bands of volunteers or visitors happen upon the hill, the choir entertains them to some of their gospel-inspired tracks. 

They have three albums under their belt: Hope for the Future, Joyful Voices, and Save Africa. Thanks to their visit to the orphanage in 2006, the team of astronauts from NASA picked up the choir’s Save Africa album, which it took with it on one of its space missions. 

While the choir’s main problem still remains that of lack of visibility and funding, its NASA connections should be able to take it places, really. 

Taking a piece of the tourism pie

The closest attraction to L’Esperance still remains Lake Kivu, with its famous Congo Nile Trail. In line with its mission to be self-sustainable in an eco-friendly way, they have acquired 3 hectares off the lake’s shores for development as a hi-end tourist attraction affiliated to the orphanage’s cause. It will be fronted as an educational centre with excellent service embedded in nature. It intends to capitalise on a host of tourist activities like kayaking, mountain biking, sailing and horse riding to lure visitors closer to the orphanage.