Working in the field: community kitchen garden building

This week we started work on building our first kitchen gardens as a team. Providing beneficiaries the opportunity to grow their own food is important for a number of reasons. It can help to combat malnutrition by increasing access to healthy food as well as acting as a tool of self-empowerment. By building their knowledge base and capacity, we are enacting a form of sustainable development. The team has also created resources on the nutritional values of different vegetables and food groups to accompany the kitchen gardens in order to develop understanding of the importance of nutrition.

We decided to prioritise our beneficiary group of indigenous people because we believe they are the most in need. This group of nine families, totalling around 50 people, are considered to be indigenous because of their limited participation in society. They live on the sector’s land in public housing but lack adequate accommodation or hygiene and sanitation facilities. In our first meeting with the group, members explained they are often too weak from hunger to work on the land or on other business projects to receive income. Their marginalisation has become further apparent from the negative responses to their situation from other members of the community. 

Members of the indigenous community displaying the goods they produce to the team at the first meeting 

Prior to the build, the indigenous group prepared the land by digging up the soil (and coming across a chameleon along the way). In order to construct a kitchen garden, the next steps involve chopping wood to be used to create the structure. Following this, sacks need to be cut and nailed to these surfaces before being filled with layers of soil and fertiliser. It is hard physical labour and team members swapped in and out to complete the job. Vegetables, including dodo, spinach, carrots, cabbage, onions and peanuts, are to be planted once the mud settles.
  
We also completed another kitchen garden this week, on behalf of the community health workers, for the mothers of malnourished children in the sector of Rango. We had originally hoped to build individual kitchen gardens for the most malnourished families in each of the surrounding sectors but the health official recommended a larger plot of land to be used by 5-6 families in the area. The team were concerned about the location selected due to lack of sunlight but found it extremely rewarding to complete the build. 

Celebrating finishing building the first kitchen garden

Following these successes, and in line with our team plan, we are planning to construct more kitchen gardens for other groups of beneficiaries, including the tailors and sex workers. We have also been looking into the possibility of developing portable kitchen gardens for those who live in unstable housing, renting homes at risk of eviction. 

The team also had some practice for the physical labour involved. On the last Saturday of every month, residents are expected to participate in ‘Umuganda’, a practice of community service. The word can be translated as ‘coming together in common purpose to achieve an outcome’. On the 24th February, we contributed to the clearing of an area for a new road. For many, it was our first time using farming tools and we received instruction on how to do so from other participants.

Members of the team hoeing the fields at the Umuganda

This practice fosters unity and communication within the community while also helping to develop infrastructure and protecting the environment. A meeting to discuss local issues follows each Umuganda. Cleanliness and conservation are both notable aspects of Rwanda; for example, on arrival in Kigali, the lack of litter was noticeable to the UKV’s and plastic bags face a nationwide ban. 

In discussing the development of Rwanda, President Kagame previously stated: “What we have achieved to date shows us what we are capable of and Umuganda is an integral part of achieving even more. Umuganda is one of the reasons we are moving forward, working together and believing in our common goal of transforming our lives and the lives of our families.” An estimated 80% of Rwandans take part in the community work each month, which begins at 8am and often continues for around three hours.

Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu
Photos by Rabeya Ullah