At 70, Nyinawintwari competes for odd jobs

The adage, “age is just a number,” is applicable in many ways, including in describing Speciose Nyinawintwari. She is 70, but she leaves her home just on the outskirts of Nyamagabe town every morning and heads to the city to look for odd jobs to do. Sometimes, lady luck smiles in her way, but other times, her gods are asleep and she returns home empty-handed. But this does not dampen her hopes.“I have no land to cultivate,” says Nyinawintwari. “There is even no one to look after me. At my age, I shouldn’t be here, but time has decided otherwise; I’ve to make every effort to survive.”Nyinawintwari says she handles various tasks, from working on other people’s farms, and transporting sand to cleaning compounds or “any other task that I might be asked to handle.”However, she is not the only one in Nyamagabe town accustomed to this lifestyle. About 40 persons—young and old, men and women—earn their bread this way.Bread on the tableThe ‘walkers’—as we shall call them—usually sit at a place known here as ‘Kuri 40’, a strategic spot in the centre of Nyamagabe town just at the entrance of one of the roads leading to the district’s main market.As they head to town every morning, they expect farm jobs, domestic chores and transporting construction materials like sand and bricks, among others.Their daily wage ranges between Rwf500 and Rwf1,000, or sometimes more depending on the task.Breastfeeding mothers, girls, married men and their wives as well as old people gather here every morning. They chat, crack jokes, but also compete to offer their services to any potential ‘employer’. Colette Mukamana, 30, a mother of six, sits calmly flanked by his husband. They have been here since early in the morning and it is now coming to 10am. “If we don’t get one to offer us a job by noon, we will go home,” Mukamana says. The woman says the lifestyle is affecting their lives.“It is difficult to put food on the table, but it gets more difficult when it comes to educating our children,” she confesses.Laziness or just mindset?It has become a habit for the Walkers to spend hours at ‘Kuri 40’ expecting people to find them and give them odd jobs.Nyinawintwari, whom I find on Friday collecting bricks near the Nyamagabe-Rusizi main road that she was taking to a local man, says the last two days were ‘barren’–she did not get any job. I asked some of them why they do not look for alternative employment rather than spending hours looking for jobs they do not have assurance to get. Their answers were all about lack of land or capital to start income-generating activities.Isn’t it rather a sign of laziness? I asked one of them. “Not that. But rather we are trying our best to survive,” replies Emmanuel Mazimpaka, 25.I ask why they cannot join their hands and start a cooperative to be more organised and perhaps attract more resources and support from well-wishers.“We have no support,” a woman, who asked not to be identified, says.But I later learn that some Walkers had earlier received support from government and other well-wishers. One woman acknowledged receiving a cow under the One Cow per Poor Family programme, while others were aided to build their houses.But the Walkers keep complaining of lack of support. Another woman confessed that “everyone is concerned with their own interest and tries to live on their own”.Job opportunitiesDistrict officials say efforts are underway to improve the living conditions of the residents.Philbert Mugisha, the Nyamagabe mayor, said emphasis is being put on creating new off-farm jobs.He said several projects, which are expected to employ hundreds of individuals, are currently underway, citing the Integrated Dumping Site, which is due for completion this month, and the construction of a craft centre.The modern dumpsite is expected to create at least 1,000 jobs in the long run. The mayor said when the time for recruiting comes, they will start with the vulnerable persons.

National

At 70, Nyinawintwari competes for odd jobs