In Rwanda: Accelerating Progress towards the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women
For women like Drocella, and for men like Emmanuel too, the Joint Programme on “Accelerating Progress towards the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women” is making a difference.
© FAO / Joseph Mukamana
Drocella Nyiramaruhe lives with her husband and four children in the Nyarurugu District of Rwanda. Until recently, the family lived in a one-room house given to them by a neighbour, and struggled to make ends meet. But in recent months, as a beneficiary of the joint programme for Accelerating Progress towards the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women (RWEE), Drocella has been able to improve her lot.
Through Inades Formation Rwanda, a non-governmental organization and FAO partner, she began to receive FAO support in the form of sensitization and training on nutrition, hygiene, and family planning. She also received fortified iron-rich beans, sweet potato cuttings rich in vitamin A, a young female pig (and training on how to take care of it), and training in building and maintaining a kitchen garden.
Today, the family lives in a newly-built three-room mudhouse. In addition to the pig, they own around 60 guinea pigs and rabbits, some chickens and a cow. Drocella's income security has increased as she has been able to extend and diversify her small businesses, and because she now grows different vegetables, the family's food security and nutrition levels have improved.
For Drocella, the most important change has been in her social status and standing in the community. “I think I have become an inspiration for the other project beneficiaries, as I show them how things can work out if you try to invest in your own business, take some risk and hold on to something that you started,” she said.