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Village Projects - Nyamata, Rwanda Africa,
even its most fertile areas, is stuck in a poverty trap - too poor
to achieve The Millennium Village Project has successfully completed two years of work in Mayange sector in Bugesera district, demonstrating that interventions in agriculture, environment, micro-credit, enterprise development, gender, education and health can help communities begin to break the cycle of poverty. The time is ripe to expand this successful package of interventions to the neighboring sector of Nyamata. Nyamata sector has a population of about 26,000 divided into five cells (Nyamata town, Kanazi, Maranyundo, Murama and Kayumba). The health center serves the population of both Nyamata sector and the neighboring sector of Ntarama, which is home to about 15,000 people; however, a new health center is under construction at Ntarama. Unlike Mayange, where the health facility was under-utilized before MVP arrived, in Nyamata there are always more patients than the center can serve in a day. As in many rural health centers in Rwanda, trained staff and medicines are both lacking. The sector has ten primary schools and five secondary schools. Classes in primary school are overcrowded with approximately 70 students per teacher. Facilities are extremely basic with poor latrines and cooking conditions. Most children are able to access primary school for the first few years but few make it to secondary school. The sector receives about 1,000 mm of rainfall per year during its two rainy seasons. This is substantially higher than sectors just to the south and can enable good growing conditions. The area is suitable for a variety of crops and there is a large amount of land that is not utilized due to loss of its owners in 1994 genocide. Coffee is being re-introduced in the sector as cash crop and a number of small diary farms are cropping up. Since the government has completed a paved road from Kigali to Nyamata town and beyond, and there are plans for a new national airport to be built there within the next decade, the region has great potential for investment. Some potential income generation enterprises include setting up processing industries for livestock (milk and cheese) and crop products for human consumption as well as animal feed. Since Nyamata is the biggest town in Bugesera district, it has shops where traders from other parts of Bugesera buy goods and services. The potential for further investment is enormous. When the project can obtain funding to expand into Nyamata sector, the first village would be in the village of Murama. It neighbors Mayange sector, and as the most remote and least developed cell in the sector, it has the most needs. Its people have long been too far from the health center to utilize services, and key infrastructure such as water and electricity have not yet reached it. Help Millennium Congregation establish the Murma Millennium Village in Nyamata, Rwanda
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Copyright © 2008 Millennium Congregation