The Magic Cow

Rulindo’s pauper becomes a millionaire “Now when John had heard in prison the works of Christ: sending two of his disciples he said to him: Are you he that is to come, or look we for another? And Jesus making answer said to them: Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them.” Mathew 11: 2-5 That was over 2000 years ago. Sometimes reading the reports, by ‘authorities’ on Rwanda’s political terrain, one (who is swayed and never been to or reading about Rwanda’s status for the first time) may be made to believe that there is smoldering on and beneath the surface. Foreigners who come to Rwanda, return to their respective countries with a different view all together. A view of a people bent on building their country. Paul Kagame, the President, has been called names—good and bad. For those who speak ill of the situation in Rwanda, there is a story here to read. Towards the end of last year, I was commissioned by ActionAid Rwanda to carry out some case studies about the Girinka Project. Along the way, I was, particularly mesmerized by Mutera’s story which I wish to share with you here. Waking up at 6:00am in the morning, without a bite, without a drink! Get to work, providing hard labour, digging on other people’s gardens. At 1pm, after eight hours of plough, slashing and at times weeding, he gets paid RwF200—hardly enough to put a meal on the table, for the family of four. Can one even talk of meeting other basic needs? Not at all! Simply buy some little food the RwF200 can afford, and wait for tomorrow’s labour. Simply surviving! His derelict house is on the verge of collapsing, the grass-thatched roof sagging in, the supporting pillars slanting this and that way, the windows purged with dry banana leaves—a house on a deathbed—simply put. He lost all that he had to the 1990-1994 war and genocide—property and parents-relatives all perished as his hope withered. But it never died. That was Mutera Nazeri’s wretched life for almost two decades—a life of wanting all the time, a life of labour and toil all the year. Fast forward. The year 2004, January—to be specific, came with a big fetch of luck. Under the One Cow per Poor Family Programme (Girinka in the local dialect), initiated by President Paul Kagame to help those trapped in abject poverty, Mutera was given a cow. A Friesian. And his life has never been the same. Mutera, 49, a resident of Kanyoni Village, Budakiranya Cell, Kyenzuzi Sector in Rulindo District of Northern Province, with a wife and two children—a 12 year old girl and a 6 year old boy, started reaping from the cow when, a few months after getting it, it calved, an offspring he religiously passed over to Karema Francois as per the programme’s arrangement. “I started profiting right away by selling some of the milk and keep the rest for home consumption and sharing with neighbours.” He says with a tinge of satisfaction and glamour. “The cow droppings of course have since been a great blessing to my land. I never lack fertilsers.” Mutera’s pleasure is not for nothing. “The Friesian has so far produced five calves. There is another which will calve in a few weeks’ time. We sold one calf at Frw400, 000 (about $600) to buy more land for farming and growing pastures for the cattle.” And the land he indeed has—over ten acres on which he grows Irish Potatoes, cabbages, beans, onions, passion fruits and 5,000 agro-forestry trees which have an invaluable function of nitrogen-fixing to the soils. Besides, Mutera is a proud owner of four Friesian cattle. “In the morning we milk 9 liters which we sell off, and in the evening we get 8 which we keep for home consumption and sharing with neighbours. If a neighbor has got a sick person, we usually give them milk, free of charge,” enthuses Mutera. As our conversation catches on, Mutera’s wife is beckoned by who we suppose is a neighbor. She gets in one of the rooms in the house, gets a knapsack sprayer, and gives it to him. Mutera’s Family are good neighbours! They share with those in need—milk, farm implements and, more importantly, their youthful bull for crossbreeding. “People come from near and afar, to bring their cows to be mounted by our bull.” Always ‘our’, not ‘my’. Mutera and his family are one and the same. “We charge them a modest fee of RwF2, 000. So far, about 40 cows have been mounted by our bull, 20 of which have produced very good exotics.” Mutera’s breed is, for sure, permeating steadily to the neighbours and beyond. And do you know what the former farm hand, a former earner of RwF200 earns today? “From the milk, we earn frw1350 per day. But the annual income is in the region of Frw2, 000,000 (about $4000). Last season we reaped 500 Kilograms of beans, one tonne of Irish potatoes, 700 kilograms of sorghum and 700kgs of maize. Of course we keep seeds for planting in the next season, and we keep our granary filled all the time.” Mutera’s family no longer runs short on foods. All family members are a happy breed. This season (last 4 months), Mutera was able to reap Frw1, 500,000 ($2,500) from the sale of his crop produce alone. Mutera’s wife, Uwamahoro Alphonsine, 39, a proud mother of two, and a primary leaver remembers their past of abject poverty with a trace of sorrow, but gleams with a dash of a smile when she considers where they are. “I could not even afford Vaseline. I was never confident. I always had a towering inferiority complex hanging over my head,” remembers Uwamohoro, a mediator at her village. Today, Uwamoro, who looks younger than her 38 years, gets all she wants. “Our children go to school, insured in Mutuelle de Sante, they get all they want, I communicate near and far using my mobile phone and so life is good.” And indeed it is good. What, with a garden teeming with 287 plants of ‘smiling’ banana plants, Irish potatoes and a plethora of food-crops, grown on land terraced with civil precision! This Girinka Programme is a goldmine initiative. And Mutera’s family today employs about four people to help with garden work. They have since built an iron roofed five roomed house, and in the process of establishing a bio-gas plant which will cost Rwf 800,000 (about $1,200) of which they will contribute Rwf200, 000 ($400) the balance to be provided by the sector administration. “What is your comment on the Girinka Programme?” we ask Mutera, who, flooding his face with a generous smile, questions before he answers; “What can I say if it was not this government’s good policies of helping the poor? Just look around and tell.” We look around his sitting room. His blue sofas tell part of the story. His well nourished daughter, Marie Claire Magabekazi (the son is still at school), meticulously dressed, tells another. Outside, his lush gardens tell yet another. Many good stories to tell. “This is the best thing ever to happen in our lives. It started with us, but now our neighbours are, too, profiting. What more can one ask of President (Paul) Kagame and the government he leads?” He ends his answer with yet another question. I do not offer an answer though. There are so far 1,761 families in Kyenzuzi Sector that have benefitted from the Girinka Programme, according to the Sector Executive Secretary, Hategekimana Valense. About 80 vulnerable households, headed by women have got cows under the programme. Hategekimana, 43, says that over 50% of the households in Kyenzuzi Sector, with a total population of 4787, are headed by women. The women are 2890 in total. But Mutera’s family is not basking in glory all the time. Sometimes the milk hawkers who buy milk from them take long to pay, and others never pay at all. So he’s planning to start selling to the Parish Priest who, his friends say, pays promptly, as the sector plans for a milk collecting center. Another hurdle is water. Mutera’s family is settled at the apex of the hill, yet they get water from a spring four kilometers away. But Hategekimana, the Executive Secretary, says that they will soon have piped water brought nearer. As we wind up our conversation with Mutera’s family, the wife, diligently and confidently, brings the Visitor’s Book. They don’t stop amazing us! And as they escort us to our van, Mutera shows us his experiment control plots. One with a mixture of two fertilizer types—Invaruganda and Imborero, two others with one type of fertliser each, and one without fertilizers. Now this Mutera is into research! How can a single cow, transform an entire livelihood, perception, mindset and one’s faculties in taming nature to defeat adversity? And in so short a time? This must be a magic cow. And others, surely, are! Ends