The Self Help Group Approach

Bamporeze, our partner organisation, advocates the self-help group (SHG) approach - a method of development proven to promote self-sustainability, empower vulnerable community members and encourage financial independence. It was an idea that captivated us as a team during a general introduction to Bamporeze's work, leaving us desirous to learn more and eager to support the formation and expansion of SHGs in Rulindo.

Put simply, an SHG is a collective of people who provide mutual support to each other - for anything from mental wellbeing to economic security. It is the latter that forms the focus for Bamporeze's SHGs, but not exclusively so. There are a multiplicity of benefits that derive from bringing the residents of Rulindo together in these collectives: a sense of community empowerment, the potential for new business networks, new skills acquired from book keeping, meeting administration and group leadership, to name a few. Moreover, SHGs are a highly sustainable form of community development: once the groups have been created and their members trained they are left to run themselves, unreliant on outsiders for financial support or guidance.

Bamporeze has adopted the SHG approach in Rulindo to increase the socio-economic capacity of those living in extreme rural poverty, bringing these people together to form a homogenous collective aware of their rights. It can be an extremely effective method of development but only when carried out in the right way, to specific guidelines and exacting standards, something which soon became apparent during our initial training and later fieldwork.

Angelique visiting host homes to identify those who could benefit from a Self Help Group Approach

Our first task was to conduct home visits in our two target villages, Rusagara and Nyamugali. The purpose of this was twofold: to assess the eligibility of residents for SHG membership and to raise awareness of the SHG concept within the two communities. It soon became apparent that the first of these objectives was somewhat redundant - 'the poorest of the poor' (our target as stated by Bamporeze) could be found in almost all of the homes we visited. None of the houses had electricity or running water, and many consisted of only one or two small rooms - a stark contrast from the host homes we have been living in, and an abrupt realisation of the extreme poverty prevalent in rural Rulindo. So our task instead became one of awareness raising, informing community members and collecting the contact details of those interested.

We managed to visit seventy-seven homes between us - a feat given the hilly terrain and scorching sun. This was not without its difficulties. On reaching a home it was not uncommon to find it empty, or at least uninhabited by any women with children, the criteria for membership stated by Bamporeze. Language was also an issue for UK volunteers - many of the people we visited were illiterate, let alone able to speak English. But despite these issues we succeeded in almost reaching our team target of eighty homes, an achievement that was to reveal its success in the first SHG meeting the following week.

Bamporeze helping those who want to join a SHG with wealth ranking and social mapping exercises

Now that we had a large pool of interested community members, we needed to divide them into smaller groups of 15-20 people based on location and socio-economic status - the former to ensure ease of meeting and the latter to promote trust and unity within the groups. A representative from Bamporeze led this process, first establishing the geography of the community using a method called social mapping. The women, baring stickers with their name and number of children, were asked to make a village 'map' by standing next to their neighbours. Next was the trickier task of dividing the community by wealth. This time the women stood in a long line while the Bamporeze representative read aloud various criteria against which they could differentiate their economic wellbeing, starting with cow ownership (which applied to all women) and ending with car ownership (which applied to only one woman). The women who satisfied the stated criteria at each stage would step forward, gradually stratifying them into divisible socio-economic groups.

While successful in the end, with the formation of seven new SHGs, this first meeting was challenging. An impressive turnout of over 140 women exceeded our expectations, but also presented difficulties in organising and coordinating such a large meeting. We also found that the women were reluctant to divide themselves on the basis of financial wellbeing, perhaps fearful that admitting to possessing wealth may disqualify them from Bamporeze's SHG model. But in overcoming these difficulties we managed to exceed our target for SHG formation and we all left this first meeting feeling positive for those to follow.

Our first SHG that International Service was a part of forming

Since the first meeting we have held several more to consolidate the newly established SHGs. The basic principles of each SHG have been established, explaining that members must sit in an inclusive circle, that everyone must actively participate, and that leadership should change on a weekly rotational basis. Each group has elected two secretaries to be trained by Bamporeze staff and has chosen a name, often embodying the principles of trust, unity and togetherness. Crucially, members have also decided on the weekly amount they will each contribute to the group saving pot, usually around 100RWF (equivalent to 10p) due to the low economic status of the targeted communities. Once ground rules had been agreed upon (for example penalties for late payment or failure to turn up to a meeting) and regular meeting times arranged, the groups were ready to run themselves.

With a little support from future cohorts, we hope that these new SHGs will financially empower the women of Rusagara and Nyamugali, equipping them with the means to save, to borrow and to generate wealth. The alleviation of poverty will bring greater rights security to the women of Rulindo, ultimately strengthening the community as a whole for generations to come.

The Road to Rulindo

A Recipe for Development

Road to Kigali.

Arriving at Heathrow on the morning of 4^th July entailed nerves and excitement as two teams set off on a 3 month volunteer placement to Rwanda. After saying goodbye to family and friends, we boarded the first of two long flights to Kigali, changing in Istanbul. Upon arrival we were met by Alison and Sam, our team leaders who have already been doing groundwork in-country for several weeks, along with four International Service staff. We all headed to a Jesuit centre near the airport where we stayed for several days to receive in-county training. Several days, however, became over a week and a half as visa complications meant that we could not travel to our respective districts – an inevitable delay when setting up a project in a new country. While we were all keen to get started on project work, this delay did give us all more time to get to know our fellow team members, especially our counterpart in-country volunteers whom we will be sharing host homes with for the duration of our time in Rwanda.

‘Road’ to Rulindo.
Departure day finally arrived! We embarked along a dusty track, which turned out to be the main road north, to Cyinzuzi in the Rulindo district – a very rural area which certainly gives credence to Rwanda’s title ‘the land of a thousand hills’.

Climbing 2000m above sea level proved challenging for our van, its engine eventually failing and five people having to push-start it.

Upon arriving in Cyinzuzi we headed straight to the office of our project partner, Bamporeze, where we met our host families. Meeting our host parents for the first time was a nerve-wracking experience, for while our team leaders, Sam (UK) and David (Rwanda), had visited the host homes we still had very little idea what they would be like or what the standard of living is out here. Furthermore most of us will be sharing a room, 1 UK to 1 Rwandan volunteer; though not all as 2 UK volunteers had to unexpectedly return home due to family emergencies so Angelique and Solange are living by themselves.

After meeting our ‘host parents’ we all headed to our new homes where we were received very warmly and were pleasantly surprised by luxuries such as sofas, big wardrobes and even TVs in some homes. Running water is amiss though so water is typically fetched at one of the community taps, built by the Norwegian charity ‘Water for People’ several years ago, in 20L jerry cans – meaning we must all get accustomed to bucket showers!

The native language, Kinyarwanda, has been challenging for the UK volunteers to familiarise themselves with – even after a month here we can only just about grasp the basics! Exploring the local area has been an interesting experience in itself; locals are very intrigued by the UK volunteers, who are known as muzungus (meaning ‘white person’ in Kinyarwanda and applied to most foreigners). While attempts to speak basic Kinyarwanda are greatly appreciated by locals, young people are particularly keen to learn English, which has been one of the official languages of Rwanda since 2008. One of the UK volunteers Kavita found this out one weekend when she unexpectedly spent one hour and a half teaching ‘heads, shoulder, knees and toes’ and ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ to a group of children in her garden.

Bamporeze Project Partner

Our Bamporeze team will be working on the protection and promotion of the rights of children, youth and women in the region. Rulindo, just north of the capital Kigali, was chosen as a priority district due to its large youth population (59.6% of the population is under 25), high rate of unemployment (72.8%) and the lack of support in place to help these vulnerable groups. Our work will focus on two of the seventeen sectors of Rulindo, Cyinzuzi and Ngoma, where respectively only 25.7% and 21.1% of children under 7 have access to Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres. Since we are the first International Service cohort in Rulindo our work involves extensive baseline research into the community’s needs and the formation of strong relationships with Bamporeze and the community groups with which we, and future cohorts, are working with.

One of the biggest challenges of the placement so far has been the language barrier. The British volunteers talk too fast and our Rwandan counterparts struggle to understand what is being said; strangely, a northern accent is easier to understand than a southern accent! This has slowed the pace of work but since the UK volunteers have made a more conscious effort to speak slower and more clearly, it has improved. Furthermore since some of the host-homes have no English-speaking family members the ICVs have been a great help to the UK volunteers with interpreting and helping communication between volunteers and host families.

Another interesting observation has been the differences in approaches to time management between cultures. As noted by in-country volunteers, the British way tends to be more fast-paced and eager to get things done; whilst Rwandan culture is more relaxed, valuing people more than time with people often using the phrase ni ah’ejo (‘you have tomorrow’). This has meant the team had to adjust to a stricter schedule whilst also accepting that some things may take longer than expected. The same principle goes for punctuality as time is more of a fluid concept in Rwanda. Therefore we have all made a conscious effort to be at the office on time and to be flexible if a meeting happens later than scheduled.

Though these first few weeks have gotten off to a slower start than expected and the Rwandan way of life has been difficult to adjust to for those from the UK, things are looking positive and productive. We are all becoming more settled in our host homes and communities, improving the cohesion of our team and establishing a solid plan for our activities. With these plans currently coming into fruition we will be posting more updates in the coming weeks on our activities as we begin to really get started on the project.

Rory, Solange, Redempta, Alice, Angelique, Patrick, Kavita, Jane, David and Sam.