Rwanda: Grassroots leaders win support to expands medical clinic in Nyarubuye

“Nobody else will build our future. We are the ones to take primary responsibility to build this clinic that will take care of mothers who will be delivering babies… we cannot hold the government responsible before we take ownership of our problems and lives.” – Muteteri Charlotte, Faith in Action leader-organizer

Following a listening campaign at the beginning of the year, Charlotte Muteteri and other Faith in Action leaders mobilized people from villages around Nyarubuye to expand the clinic they constructed two years ago. The new facility will provide a much-needed maternity ward.

Over the past month leaders organized a fundraising campaign in seven villages, highlighted by twelve women’s contribution of 8 goats (400,000 Rwf/$300) to purchase materials and begin construction. On March 3, leaders hosted the three Senators representing the area to seek their support in this effort. The visiting senators told the villagers how proud they felt to see them owning their own lives and immediately approved the expansion project.

Work has been proceeding with labor provided by local villagers including young people who are carrying water to make the concrete needed for construction. To protect the clinic and to address the climate change issues of drought in the region, people have also planted an additional 850 trees this year.

This effort was initiated and carried forward entirely by Mutateri Charlotte who is a leader-organizer and a team of leaders in Nyarubuye and surrounding villages who received training from Pastor John and Father Innocent.

This spirit of self-reliance is at the heart of the story of Faith in Acton organizing in Rwanda and across Africa and becomes more important every day, especially as foreign aid disappears. This spirit is captured by one of the women who donated a goat, who said, “realizing if we can conceive and have babies in our wombs for 9 months, be able to deliver and nurture them until we reach the time to wean them, why can’t we get ready to wean ourselves from foreign aid.”