Like much of the developing world, Covid and the subsequent lockdowns had a great impact on life in Rwanda. Markets closed, people were housebound, medical and other Government services were either closed or overloaded. Life became very difficult and even moreso for those living at the economic margins. The poor suffered terribly. But when life has always been difficult, there is a resilience and capacity to bounce back that cannot be measured or even fully understood. For from these ashes of despair, emerge stories of growth and hope. One of these stories is Josephine.
Josephine lives in Kurumbi village in Nyamagabe district. She is married with six children, four boys and two girls, and lives in her own home after joining a Self Help Group in 2016. Before the breakout of COVID- 19 pandemic, she was selling cassava flour to earn income. She would buy dried cassava from the market, take it to a milling machine and sell the flour at market. She also bought raw cassava, deep fried in oil and sold it with a profit mark-up. Josephine said that on average she bought both dry and raw cassava amounting to about 35,000 RWF per month and made sales totaling to 50,000 RWF. She would use part of the income to pay for basic needs and with savings she bought a bull.With the outbreak of COVID- 19, the total lockdown set in, and everything changed. As a preventive measure for some time nobody was allowed to go out of village or premises including going to markets. The cassava business stopped, resulting into financial constraints beyond what she could imagine.
During this time Josephine and other group members didn’t get any support until August 2021 when Foxglove provided her Group with a loan of 400,000 RWF. With the loan, they bought seeds and manure to start growing cabbage and carrots (see photo). From the income earned from vegetables, Josephine has been able to support her family and by July 2022, the loan had been fully paid back.
After reviving her business, Josephine and her family bought a second cow. However, supporting 4 children in high school was not easy. The family decided to sell off one bull, pay school fees and other household basic needs. Josephine narrates that with the cows, she is able to get composite manure which enables her family to get good farm produce for food and sell some to get income to pay for other household basic needs . She is forever grateful for all the help financially she received, and she is happy to say that she completed paying back the loan and started December 2022 as a debt-free woman.