“Before, I felt alone. But now, being in a group has helped me communicate better. I speak up in front of people now.” -Anastasie Musabende (Age 70), Jabana Hills, Rwanda

“I have been looking for this group. I have been admiring what they are doing. I have three orphaned grandchildren, so I hope The Nyanya Project will help make life better for them like it has for the grandmothers in the group.” – New Grandmother, Lucia Mukami (Age 73), Ndahti, Kenya

“…I would like to see my granddaughter have a better future than me. Through her own education, her descendants would be stronger too.” -Beline Mukantabana (age 49), Jabana Hills, Rwanda

“[The Nyanya Project] helps me take my grandchildren to school. I have no worries for my grandchildren…once in a while, we feast.” -Lucy Wanunku (Age 65), Ndahti, Kenya

“To be a Grandmother, is to be lucky.” -Phoebe Mmboga (Age 62), Kibera, Kenya

“The reason why I take my grandchildren to school is so that when I die, they will have knowledge for their own self-reliance.” -Rhoda Mwkali (Age 60), Kibera, Kenya

“[The Nyanya Project] makes me happy. I have a feeling of independence.” -Catherine Gathonia (Age 48), Ndahti, Kenya

“When I joined The Nyanya Project, I liked two things. First, I felt part of a group and more confident. Second, this group that I joined, we have a common vision…” -Esperance Murebwayire (Age 56), Jabana Hills, Rwanda

“Recently I was sick and I was able to pay my hospital bills without any help.” -Edith Gaathoni Munene (Age 76), Ndahti, Kenya

“I don’t depend on anyone to support my needs. I feel independent and encouraged. My faith is stronger than it used to be. God sent you to help us. I am blessed.” -Margeret Mjeri (Age 60), Jabana Hills, Rwanda

“The Ebenezer Nyanya Project has given me an identity and strength.” -Ruth Maringo Mwanki (Age 80), Ndahti, Kenya

“By taking my grandchildren to school, I want them no to live in the slums. I want them to have a better life than I had.” -Florence Kasuvu (Age 62),  Kibera, Kenya

“A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books.” -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 Just over a year ago, I finally made the decision to attend Wake Forest University. It was a difficult decision. I had been rejected by my top three choices, with the rejection letters all arriving on the same day. To say I was devastated would be an understatement. After much persuasion from my parents and teachers, I composed myself and returned to my list of college options. I knew my best choice would be Wake Forest University.

Wake Forest University had always been my ideal school, but my biggest fear was that it would be too familiar. With two parents and two uncles being Wake alumni and the school being only 40 minutes from home, Wake Forest did not exactly feel like the place where I would learn to become independent and grow on my own. I did not feel like I would be expanding my horizons if I attended the university where I went to soccer camp, choral competitions, and the usual football and basketball games. My parents met at Wake Forest University Medical School, my father proposed to my mother on the steps of Wait Chapel, I owned a pair of Wake Forest baby shoes, and I once was a Wake cheerleader for Halloween- my entire life, until that point, had been connected to Wake Forest University. So as the college process came around, I found myself looking for schools exactly like Wake Forest, but refusing to consider the Wake Forest right in front of me.

Clearly God has a sense of humor. The fact that I’m writing this from Kigali, Rwanda, serving as an assistant to a Wake Forest professor, is firm proof that I’m having the “growing up” experience of a lifetime. Clearly, God has a better plan than I had hoped for.

I am currently on a two-week trip with Wake Forest University Journalism Professor Mary Martin Niepold, founder of the non-profit organization, The Nyanya Project, which empowers African grandmothers who are raising AIDS orphaned grandchildren (Nyanya is the Swahili word for grandmother). We were connected to each other by a mutual friend, Bett Hargrave, and soon I found myself in Niepold’s office. After learning about The Nyanya Project, I expressed interest because of my wonderful experience in Botswana, Africa, in 2011 and my desire to enter the non-profit sector.

Somehow everything fell into place and I am now in Africa having the experience of a lifetime. We’ve visited The Nyanya Project grandmothers located in both Kenya and Rwanda. In Kenya, there are two project sites: Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa, is the location of the Nyanya preschool and sewing center. Now fully sustainable, half of the profits earned by the grandmothers working at the sewing center go towards the preschool in order to keep it running. In Ndahti, Kenyan grandmothers raise livestock in order to generate income. Similarly, in the Jabana Hills of Rwanda, grandmothers raise livestock and harvest mushrooms and peppers. While independence is a major part of the Nyanya Project Vision, Niepold looks beyond the concept of income. She wants her project to assure African grandmothers, who are typically overlooked by the government, to know that “they have not been forgotten.”

It’s clear that Niepold’s vision is coming true by just looking at the surveys we have conducted over the past two weeks. One sentiment repeated by multiple grandmothers involved in the Rwanda project was, “Before I was alone, but now I’m part of a big group… I speak up in front of people now.” Niepold’s vision has given grandmothers the opportunity to have the confidence to raise their voices and tell their own narratives. While these narratives have opened my eyes and my heart, the narratives told around the dinner table with Niepold each night have really my expanded my perceptions.

Niepold is both the ultimate storyteller and has an uncanny knowledge of a wide range of topics. Considering this, it would be expected that she would be intimidating, especially for a freshman like myself. That is certainly not the case. Over dinner, she has explained the difference in Kenyan and Rwandan governments, she taught me the basics of the Rwandan genocide (using room keys to represent different groups), shared stories of those who survived the genocide, and counseled me on how I can continue to learn about Africa while dealing with inevitable feelings of guilt and helplessness. We have also discussed breast cancer (both her and my own grandmother are breast cancer survivors), the importance of being “big” in terms of moral character, and how “pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.” I have already joked with her that this trip is more than a crash-course on non-profits, but a crash course on life.

Two days ago, I had another “learning experience” around a dinner table. I was eating lunch with The Nyanya Project founder (and my travel buddy) Niepold and Jeannetta Craigwell-Graham, a young lady who Niepold learned about from friend and colleague, Maria Henson (’82) Associate Vice President and Editor-at-Large. Jeannetta initially worked in a prominent law firm in New York City that advises on major deals across the world. However, after working in Tanzania for a month, assisting with the ICTR, she discovered her job in New York City was leaving her disconnected with her true self. Jeannetta is now living in Rwanda and works as a Transaction Adviser at the Rwanda Development Board.

As we sat under the cool shade of the tin roof of a local restaurant, Zaffran’s, I listened to these two highly intelligent women discuss the government situation of various African countries. My surroundings flooded over me and I thought, “Wow.  How did you end up eating at an Indian restaurant with these two women in Rwanda? Can you believe that you are eating lunch in Rwanda with two Wake Forest alumni?”

It was startling. There were, in fact, two Wake grads and one current Wake student sitting around a table in Rwanda: Niepold (’63), Craigwell-Graham (’06), and I (’16), introduced by Henson (’82).  Furthermore, all four of us grew up in North Carolina. Who would have thought Wake Forest would allow me to have a seat at a table in Rwanda with two such fantastic women? I continued to listen in awe as the two swapped stories and discussed the development of African countries. My next thought? “Wow. Did you ever think this was possible? Now, can you even imagine the future possibilities?”

Who knew that one “future possibility” would present itself the very next day, once again around a dinner table? Niepold is the master of making connections and so she had met a recent Medical School grad, Sandrine Crane, in Winston-Salem, where she is a resident at Wake Forest Baptist Health, before our trip. Sandrine, who grew up in Kigali, Rwanda, asked if Niepold could deliver a package to Sandrine’s parents once we arrived in Rwanda. Niepold happily agreed and we set up a meeting with the couple at a prominent hotel within walking distance of our own. When Niepold asked Sandrine’s father, Joesph Habyarimana, over the phone if he knew where the Hotel Des Mille Collines was, he simply responded yes.

Niepold and I sat with the couple and discussed Sandrine, their family, and our thoughts on our trip to Rwanda. After sharing our plans for the day, which included visiting Reconciliation Village (where Hutus and Tutsis now live side by side) and the Nyamata Church (where over 2,000 Tutsis hiding in the church were killed), Sandrine’s mother, Virginie Mukamugenza, admitted that she grew up in the Nyamata region.  “My parents died in the Nyamata Church.”

Chilled, we allowed the silence to take the place of insignificant words. Niepold then delicately continued, “I am so sorry. Where were you in 1994?” This was the year of the Rwandan genocide.

After which, Sandrine’s father spoke up, “We were here in 1994.” We lowered our heads, assuming he meant he was in Rwanda during the events of 1994.

“So you were in Rwanda?” Niepold asked.

“Yes, but we were here,” he explained pointing his finger at our general location.

“Kigali?” Niepold asked.

He continued, “Yes, Kigali. But we were here.” He pointed to the very hotel we were sitting at. “We were hiding in Hotel Des Mille Collines for three weeks.”

For those who are familiar with the film “Hotel Rwanda,” the Hotel Des Mille Collines was the “Hotel Rwanda” featured. Although it has kept its original name, the hotel has been remodeled in attempts to make it less frightening. In 1994, more than 1,200 people were sheltered from the killings outside. Everyone hiding in the Hotel Des Mille Collines survived.

To sit at a table at Des Mille Collines, with a couple who hid there during the Rwandan Genocide is an experience that cannot be found in museums or textbooks. It is the human stories of suffering and survival that seem to tear at the heart the most.

Who knew that a school 40 minutes from my home would take me as far as Kenya and Rwanda? Who knew that a school 40 minutes from my home would allow me to have a place at the table with inspiring Wake graduates and the family members of a Wake Forest resident? Who knew that a school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina would take three North Carolinians to Rwanda and one Rwandan to North Carolina?

I am now thoroughly convinced that there is some Wake Forest magic working on that dear campus in Winston-Salem. Maybe the magic can be credited to strong values in Pro Humanitate, maybe the magic can be credited towards the University’s push for learning outside the classroom. It’s stunning. Seeing how Niepold and Craigwell-Graham found their place in Rwanda and Crane found a way to bring medicine back to Rwanda makes me look to the future with excitement and curiosity. It’s clear that I have been with some dynamite Demon Deacon ladies and their families. I simply cannot wait to see how their stories progress and how my own story unfolds. Who knows, maybe sometime in the future we can swap stories around another dinner table…

-Blythe Riggan

“The Nyanya Project makes me feel part of a big group. Before joining, I was alone… Now, I speak up in front of people.”

-A Nyanya Project grandmother located in the Jabana Hills of Rwanda

It goes beyond logic.

As a Wake Forest student who had been recently introduced to The Nyanya Project (TNP), I did not have any clear expectations about the TNP grandmothers when I boarded the plane for Africa with TNP Founder, Mary Martin Niepold. I had only a basic knowledge of The Nyanya Project (“TNP”), understanding that the project teaches skills to African grandmothers to keep their families together in the face of AIDS devastation. My biggest concern was the issue of relating to these women. Age and language were petty differences compared to the fact that I could in no way relate to raising an AIDS orphaned grandchild. How would they act? Would the grandmothers be angry or frustrated? Discouraged or distraught?

When I finally met these grandmothers, I was startled. Instead of being defeated by the burden of raising orphaned grandchildren, they seemed to be empowered. Their joyful energy was contagious and their voices never faltered during songs, prayers, or the sharing of personal stories. There were no complaints, but instead a deep peace from within as each grandmother appeared to be grateful for the many blessings in her life. One grandmother claimed, “To be a Grandmother is to be lucky.”

The Nyanya Project teaches these women skills for sustainable projects offered in different regions of Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania: sewing in Kibera (Kenya), business skills in Kenya and Tanzania, livestock in both Nyeri (Kenya) and the Jabana Hills (Rwanda), as well as agriculture in the Jabana Hills(Rwanda). Teaching the grandmothers a skill, instead of handing them money, allows the grandmothers to have dignity and practice self-reliance. A grandmother recently told us, “I was sick and I was able to pay my hospital bills without any help.” Another grandmother said, “I don’t depend on anyone to support my needs. I feel independent and encouraged. My faith is stronger than it used to be…”

It really does go beyond logic. Out of the dozens of grandmothers we interviewed and talked with in the Jabana Hills of Rwanda, nine of them had never attended school. The numbers are similar for the grandmothers in the other project regions. These uneducated women single-handedly raise as many as ten or more grandchildren, making them responsible for providing food, clothes, and school fees. One grandmother talked about not being respected in the community because of her lack of an education. Through The Nyanya Project, grandmothers are part of safe, intimate group where all stories and opinions are heard and respected. Through the projects and relationships built within The Nyanya Project, the grandmothers have turned their daily challenges into opportunities.

There is the old quote, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” I have witnessed the power of this quote after being introduced to nearlytwo hundred African grandmothers. Mary Martin Niepold told me that a friend questioned her after she founded The Nyanya Project, asking, “Are you trying to start a revolution?” Although she laughs about it, the question holds some truth. After all, if you give a grandmother money you feed her family for one day; teach a grandmother a marketable skill and she’ll start a revolution of a lifetime.

-Blythe Riggan

For the duration of 2012, one of TNP’s biggest and most successful initiatives has been the implementation of agricultural projects that train grandmothers in essential and marketable farming skills. With the help of our correspondent and leader in Rwanda, Kassim Mbarushimana, and under the direction of a skilled and experienced agronomist, over 60 grandmothers have been trained to grow peppers. In late 2012, The Nyanya Project was graciously granted $5000 to fund another agricultural initiative in Rwanda, teaching grandmothers how to cultivate and raise mushrooms. This brings the grand total of grandmothers we are able to train to over 100. Due to TNP’s mission to foster and facilitate strong community bonds in area recently devastated by hostile political and ethnic conflict, most of the grandmothers come from one region, and attend the training sessions and workshops together. In the spirit of fostering camaraderie among the many grandmothers of the Jabana Hills and building strong communities, TNP will train an additional 30 grandmothers from this region. These grandmothers will join other women from their region in this new agricultural initiative, adding skills and profits from mushroom growing to a community that already seeing the benefits of the pepper growing initiative. As representative and leader in Rwanda, Kassim will be meeting with the agronomist in late January to finalize the details for the mushroom growing initiative. We eagerly await to hear progress updates from Kassim, and wish our new grandmothers the very best as they work with us to embrace a new chapter in 2013.

We have just learned that one of our first friends in Rwanda, Minister Aloisea Inyumba, recently passed away. We met Aloisea on our first trip to Rwanda in 2010. We were introduced by a friend in Boston, and our visit was to determine if TNP could expand our training programs to grandmothers there. Aloisea, at the time, was a Senator in Rwanda’s Parliament, and she loved what we were doing.

In May, 2011, President Paul Kagame named her Minister for Gender and Family Promotion. This was her second time as Minister, the first was during the time immediately after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. A few months later, we spoke while on another visit to Rwanda, and soon thereafter, The Nyanya Project was registered by her ministry. Minister Inyumba was tireless in her support of women and families, and with her blessing, TNP began its first empowerment programs of Rwandan grandmothers and their families.

We will miss her deeply and appreciate how very much she contributed to new generations of strong women in her native land. Our heartfelt condolences go to her family and to the many, many who loved her. She died of cancer.

Please click here for more about Minister Inyumba.

Minister Aloisea Inyumba

]]> http://nyanyaproject.org/2012/12/remembering-our-friend-in-rwanda/feed/ 0 http://nyanyaproject.org/2012/12/latest-photos-from-tnps-pepper-growing-initative/ http://nyanyaproject.org/2012/12/latest-photos-from-tnps-pepper-growing-initative/#comments Fri, 07 Dec 2012 03:53:35 +0000 admin http://nyanyaproject.org/?p=1281 Check out the most recent photos of our Rwandan grandmothers as they learn to cultivate peppers to sell at the market in order to provide for their families. The album can be found here.

I, like almost all Africans, was born and brought up in an environment in which the grandmothers and elderly are only taken care of by their nuclear family members. I have witnessed first hand the hardship that these elderly women go through in Africa.

Older people play a pivotal role in any society, but today in many places, including Kenya, their needs are not being met. World over, families would not survive without the contribution of the older generation. Yet, older people are often excluded from development programs and are discriminated against by services such as health care and social support.

Africa is faced with the simultaneous challenge of sustaining high economic growth and achieving social development. Older persons, among other people, continue to be the most marginalized and vulnerable groups in Africa, especially the grandmothers. As long as the depth and breadth of social inequalities continue, achieving inclusive development will remain a challenge for Africa.

In the majority of African countries, formal systems of social protection do not exist that are capable of absorbing the increasing numbers of our older people.

The situation of the African grandmothers, who are mostly widows, is made worse by the fact that they are the same women who, following African tradition, sacrificed their formal education to their brothers’ counterpart. And now their nuclear family members, who are supposed to take care of them, are the victims of HIV/AIDS, leaving the care of their own young children to the grandmothers.

This is the situation in nearly all African countries, and it is what has been my understanding of our grandmothers’ lives’ until the year 2008 when I met Mary Martin Niepold (MM), Founder of The Nyanya Project (TNP).

The Nyanya Project was developed as a response to the problems and challenges stated above. I’ve witnessed many, many grandmothers who could not afford a meal a day and frequently could not pay their house rents and buy school uniforms for their grandchildren.

But today, in less than four years, the Nyanya Project has changed lives of grandmothers and their families by just taking the grandmothers through simple training on bookkeeping, how to save, and how to understand marketing for their small vegetable and fish stands, which is the way these older women typically provide for their families.

Most often, especially in slum neighborhoods, the grandmothers sell vegetables and dried fish. TNP chooses to teach them how to catch fish rather than giving them fish. i.e. handouts. With the business training from TNP, the grandmothers know which days of the week sell their goods better and then they know what supplies to purchase. They no longer have waste and are earning at least double what they used to earn.  Now they can afford school fees and uniforms and can pay their rent.

Two years ago, a group of four TNP grandmothers came to ask me about their grandchildren’s academic future.

Quoting from the grandmothers, they said,  “Julius, we have lived our lives, we sympathize with our grandchildren’s future and we want a preschool where we can take them for a solid early child education.”

Honestly, I could not imagine how these old ladies, who never went to school found it necessary to seek  an educational foundation for their grandchildren.

This was a noble idea but very challenging to me, having not worked in any educational fraternity.

But with Gods’ grace and the helping hands of TNP Founder, Mary Martin Niepold, the grandmothers and I started Nyanya Toto Preschool in the Kibera slums of Nairobi, with a capacity of 80 children. Our TNP grandmother’s grandchildren attend for free, while others pay a small amount, to cover basic costs and keep the preschool open to everyone. The children, ages two to five, get two hot meals a day. Other grandmothers in the neighborhood are thrilled with what they are seeing and want to join.

We have seen progress with the establishment of Nyanya Toto Preschool to provide opportunity for solid early child education for the grandchildren of the grandmothers under The Nyanya Project. Many of their grandchildren are now attending public schools, and even the grandmothers have learned how to read and write a little bit.

No good thing comes without challenges: “Sustainability” through collection of fees alone, it’s not possible. So I initiated /incorporated a sewing center; still this could not have been possible without TNP.

This center is a unique model of its kind in Kibera (the biggest slum in sub Saharan Africa). We started with 10 treadle sewing machines. Young girls and other women who have experience in sewing but do not have the machines come to rent our machines at an affordable rate per day or per hour depending on what they need.

At the same time, our grandmothers are also sewing school uniforms and selling them to our preschool and other schools in the neighborhood. They give 50 percent of their profits to the preschool, and this has seen us take care of our preschool’s supplies and operation without depending on external help.

With the preschool running, grandmothers now have more time to attend the other duties other than just looking after their grandchildren.

Before, I couldn’t imagine how changing grandmothers’ lives who are taking care of their orphaned grandchildren is possible. Today, I witness it happening and am very happy with what we have done, and I’d like to sincerely pass my heartfelt gratitude to Mary Martin Niepold. God bless your heart, MM.

Julius Okatch, TNP Program Manager, in Kenya

Julius comes to America as a guest at the Wake Forest/Clemson football game with the founder. Julius supervised four Wake football players in building a house for grandmothers and their orphans in Tanzania.

Teacher Elizabeth and children in the preschool’s play yard.

Grandmothers prepare hot meals outside the window of the preschool in Nairobi.