\u00f1<\/strong>ol<\/a><\/p>\n![\"DSC00206\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/613\/2017\/01\/DSC00206-300x225.jpg\")
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As officials explained the Crops for Health Project, a partnership between the Nyabihu District, the Catholic Diocese of Nyndo and CRS to increase nutritional standards, scores of malnourished children were enjoying a green mush made primarily from beans, small fish, potatoes, and sweet potatoes.\u00a0 The children sat on the laps of the many women present, and across from them sat the hungry white people.\u00a0 I was so hungry that I would have loved trying the green mush which the children ate with glimmering eyes and smiling faces.<\/p>\n
As this scene unfolded, a verse from Book of Samuel in the Hebrew Scriptures came to mind, \u201cthe well-fed hire themselves out for bread, while the hungry batten on spoil.\u00a0 The barren wife bears seven sons, while the mother of many languishes\u201d (1 Samuel 2,5).\u00a0 As I sat in the village of Kagano, irony enveloped my senses like fog that descends upon a traveler.\u00a0 The malnourished children ate until being filled while the hungry CRS delegation watched them devour the food.\u00a0 The ones who supposedly had plenty were hungry, while the hungry were satisfied.\u00a0 The ones who presumably had everything did not, and the needy had their fill.<\/p>\n
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A great lesson unraveled before my eyes.\u00a0 Every human person, even one in great need, contributes to the good of society.\u00a0 The children of Kagano offered excitement and playfulness.\u00a0 The women dressed in beautiful colored dresses exuded hope and joy as they danced and sung.\u00a0 The men proudly displayed great knowledge of innovative farming techniques to increase food productivity.\u00a0 Charitable and developmental programs do not only improve national statistics, but change individual lives \u2013 both the lives of the beneficiaries and benefactors.\u00a0 The personal dignity of beneficiaries is affirmed, recognizing that in their need, they point to the poverty of the benefactors.\u00a0 As I watched the children savor green mush, my hungry belly became a vivid reminder of my own poverty and need.<\/p>\n
The western Rwandan district of Nyabihu has a population of 295,000 and 90% of its citizens live by subsistence farming.\u00a0 A limited amount of farmland means that on average each family only has 1.2 acres of land to live and farm.\u00a0 A crowded district, there are about 1,376 people per square mile, 65,855 households, and 39.6% of them live below the poverty line.\u00a0 With these demographics, the greatest challenges faced by the district are food insecurity and malnutrition, both which result in the shocking statistic that 59% of the district\u2019s children are stunted.<\/p>\n
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Stunting is the direct consequence of long-term nutritional deprivation and results in hindered physical growth, delayed mental development, poor school performance, and reduced intellectual capacity.\u00a0 When a stunted child reaches adulthood, he or she will be severely limited, thus negatively impacting the overall achievement possible by individuals and society at large.\u00a0 Rwanda faced a national 51% stunting rate of its children in 2011, but through diligent work it has been reduced to 38%.\u00a0 The Nyabihu District however still faces the highest child stunting rate in the country at 59%.\u00a0 These percentages can only be decreased through long-term, persistent attention to malnourished children and those in charge of their nutrition.\u00a0 This is the purpose of the Crops for Health Project which CRS funds and provides expertise for in Rwanda.<\/p>\n
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The Crops for Health Program is designed to improve food security, heighten nutritional status, and aid in the economic development of families with children under the age of five or at risk of malnutrition.\u00a0 It promotes traditional crops that have been neglected due to a preference for cash crops.\u00a0 It introduces farmers to crops with a high nutritional value, assists them in diversifying their harvest, and teaches innovative agricultural techniques to maximize limited available land.\u00a0 These in turn improve nutrition, food security, and the livelihood of thousands of families.<\/p>\n
The program first identified 7,320 at risk families and divided them into 244 working groups.\u00a0 In order to assist them, Crops for Health trained 488 nutrition leaders at a hospital and fourteen health centers, distributed cooking demonstration kits with basic cooking utensils, and gave small farm animals such as chickens and rabbits to one thousand farmers.\u00a0 Each working group received agricultural tools, seeds and training in new farming techniques.<\/p>\n
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CRS assisted in the creation of Saving Internal Lending Communities in the working groups where farmers are encouraged to save money in a community fund.\u00a0 This not only promotes saving, but allows farmers to borrow money from the common fund at a community agreed-upon interest rate.\u00a0 During our visit to Kagano, farmers proudly presented a large wooden chest locked with three padlocks.\u00a0 Three villagers brought keys and simultaneously unlocked the padlocks revealing the saved money inside. \u00a0Everybody clapped proudly.\u00a0 A diocesan official shared with me the accounting log of Kagano\u2019s community fund.\u00a0 I was baffled when I realized that most families made saving deposits at increments of 50 Rwandan Francs, or about 7 US cents.\u00a0 This amount of money is considered substantial enough to make a deposit into the bank.<\/p>\n
Father Jean Pierre, the Director of Caritas of the Diocese of Nyndo shared that as a child, he ate at his school thanks to the generosity of CRS.\u00a0 \u201cCRS was present in rebuilding the country after the genocide, especially providing agricultural tools.\u00a0 We began life again thanks to Caritas and CRS which provided seeds to restart our livelihood.\u201d\u00a0 Many years have passed since the 1994 genocide, and CRS continues to positively impact the lives of thousands of Rwandans.\u00a0 Poverty cannot be addressed without addressing food insecurity and malnutrition, so the Crops for Health initiative strikes at the root of the problem and does not provide just a band aid solution.\u00a0 The work of CRS in Rwanda and throughout the world continues to transform lives as profound institutional change is facilitated. \u00a0Crops for Health not only feeds hungry children, but by teaching farming techniques and providing financial stability, assists families to emerge from poverty into a stable, more dignified way of life.<\/p>\n
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The children of Kagano followed us back to the bus at the entrance of the village.\u00a0 They closely observed us keep our balance while crossing a creek on a wooden plank.\u00a0 They ran through the trees as we carefully followed the cleared path down the hill.\u00a0 They cheered and ran along the dirt road as we left the village on the small, white bus.\u00a0 I may never return to Kagano, but I will never forget the lesson its villagers taught me: every human person, even one in great need, contributes to the good of society.\u00a0 My hungry belly reminded me of our common humanity and of my own poverty and need.<\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nAll pictures are mine, all rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We arrived to the village of Kagano in western Rwanda after a long journey from the capital of Kigali.\u00a0 It had been a lengthy day of traveling first to the District Office of Nyabihu for a meeting with district officials followed by continued journeying deeper into the countryside.\u00a0 Due to unexpected delays, we were unable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2533,"featured_media":2352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[217],"tags":[457,519,518,520,456,517],"class_list":["post-2344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-catholic-relief-services","tag-crops-for-health","tag-malnutrition","tag-nyabihu","tag-rwanda","tag-stunting"],"yoast_head":"\n
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