6/18/15
Today was another day that is the kind that re-focuses and re-energizes me to keep doing this kind of work. It was the second day of our visit to the Mother/Child Development Center Project (MCDC). We began the day at the Beverly Hills Academy, a pre-school and daycare for children of our beneficiaries. It allows them to focus on working hard knowing that that their children are safe and being given a good quality of early education. These are women who otherwise would have to drag their kids to work or leave them alone at home with older kids, leaving them to be without any stimulation all day and sometimes in dangerous situations, also preventing older siblings from going to school. The school’s motto is, “Education is our birthright”. The head teacher, Florence, said that, “When you empower the mother, you empower the nation.”
The children performed for us, showing off their ability to speak English through songs about counting, sounds that letters make, body parts and more. The three teachers are volunteers who dedicate long hours with energy and love. The kids are given breakfast and lunch and can stay as late as 6:00 until their mothers pick them up after work. Children younger than 2 years old are allowed, as well, if their mother is present and attending a training at the center.
Our partners, Chantal and Hope, brought me a traditional Rwandan formal attire outfit to wear for the launch of the Mother and Child Bakery. The clothing of all three of us was truly beautiful!
The bakery was built for three purposes: as a training facility for our beneficiaries who want to work in catering/cooking/baking, to provide jobs for 20 permanent workers that work in two shifts of 10, to provide a portion of the profits as funding that will allow MCDC to be sustainable.
We arrived at the bakery to find a group of women and children already gathered on the lawn of the compound. After Chantal and I cut the ribbon, the bakery manager gave us a tour of the facilities. There are women working in production, packaging, marketing and cleaning. They are currently using locally made equipment while they wait for machinery ordered from China to arrive. Gathered all together on the lawn, we had the pleasure of sampling all of the sincerely delicious baked goods being prepared at the bakery: mini-pizzas, vegetable and beef samosas, beignets, cookies and biscuits.
We heard testimonials from one bakery permanent staff member, Solange. We heard about statistics and different programs of MCDC from Olivier, another volunteer who visits all beneficiaries in the market and in their homes and refers to himself as the husband of all women in the program. This makes them laugh, but they love him. The women are counseled in issues of abuse and of rights for women and children. We also heard from volunteer, John, who manages the Revolving Fund, which gives micro loans to the women in our program, allowing them to improve their businesses as market vendors, etc. and to increase their income. We heard testimonials from women on how the Revolving Fund helped them, about having their kids at the daycare center, about how the counseling helped them.
Perhaps the highlight of the day for me was when a woman named Emerithe stood up to tell her story. Emerithe is one of the original women that was part of the Market Cooperative started by Pilot Light a few years ago, before we partnered with MCDC. She said that she was very sad that we did not visit her home yesterday during our home visits, because she wanted to show us the incredible improvements she has made to her life. She said that without the Market Coop and MCDC she would be dead. According to her, she had nothing and worked as a prostitute that serviced soldiers. She was homeless, shoeless and her child was malnourished. She had taken a microloan from the Market Cooperative to buy a bicycle, so she could transport goods to help her transition into being a vendor instead of a prostitute, but as soon as she had the bicycle, the father of her baby disappeared and took the bike with him. She remembers that during a previous visit of mine, we gave her a micro loan that she used for rent and to begin her business selling vegetables. She told us of all of the incredible improvements she had made to her life since that time and praised the programs of MCDC. She had an enormous smile and just wanted everyone present to know how happy she is now.
The celebration ended with traditional singing and dancing. It began with three ladies dancing and by the end, every woman and child was singing and dancing up a storm. The joyful faces, the contagious energy, the loud voices singing and clapping, the jumping and moving to the rhythm, it was so uplifting. It was so moving. I was so happy and proud to be a part of this moment in time with these people.
