In 2016 Nyambeho village was considered one of the most progressive villages in Rusizi District. In response to the training the Environmental Health Officer had successfully engage the village leadership and their dynamic village social worker had formed a Community Health Club which embraced everyone of the 111 households in the village.
Within a year they were tackling the lack of sanitation and had constructed 40 latrines all with proper covers and many with ventpipes which is unusual in Rwanda. They all had handwashing facilities with soap and used pot racks to keep their utensils clean. They all started to grow more vegetables and made sure all their children had a balanced diet. At the beginning of the programme there were 12 children with malnutrition but now they say all the children under sixteen are well nourished. The CEO and Director of Programmes visited the village in December to verify these claims and came away delighted with the changes which were so evident. The village was swept clean and the sense of achievement was palpable. We made a short video which captures our visit.
We also visited the District Authorities who made it very clear that this sort of impact has been observed in all of the 150 villages in the programme. They asked us to scale up the programme and to start community health clubs all the villages in the district. With the 200 CHCs started by another NGO and our own 150 funded by the Gates Foundation for the Randomised Control Trial there remain only another 250 villages to be assisted. We are currently looking for donors to support what we feel sure is a guaranteed success. Please contact us if you have any interest in this worthwhile programme.
Click here to watch this short 5 minute video to hear from the villagers themselves