Rwanda January 2020

The Founder of GA2030, Roger, spent the week connecting with community leaders for future relations regarding providing access to safe drinking water to the rural areas where access is extremely limited.

After arriving in Kigali at midnight, Roger was up at 6am to set up for a demonstration in a lush open air room. He spent the morning meeting with leaders in the water filtration businesses in Kigali to build relationships for future business and help with education, distribution, testing, and government certification. The Archbishop of Rwanda joined the meeting to discuss ideas on helping the villagers in the remote, rural areas with providing access to safe drinking water.  Impressed with a dedicated focus on rural needs and budgets, a follow-up meeting with several Bishops was scheduled for later in the week to extend relationships.

After several hours of discussions, Roger and the medical team from Global Health Initiatives through Centura Health traveled for several hours on rough roads north. They arrived at Ruhengeri (Musanze) near the border of Uganda where they would spend the night.

The next morning, the team visited Handspun Hope forty-five minutes outside Ruhengeri. They entered the center filled with women singing and talking cheerfully as they worked. The center employs 200 women to craft handmade textiles and goods from yarn spun from domestic sheep and Angora rabbits. Roger met with the founder of Handspun Hope to learn about the specific water needs of the center and the surrounding village. In this remote region all the water is gathered from wells and seldom sterilized by boiling over an open fire used for cooking.

Day three and the team headed to an even more difficult to locate community by traveling across frequently washed out roads. After Roger had to jump out of the Range Rover to guide the driver over precarious wooden planks, they arrived in Gaseke. They were welcomed by a glorious view overlooking Lake Kivu on the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Roger met with the Principal and several officials from the school where 250 children attend.  They have been using a single waer filter system for 10 months for the entire school. They stated all 250 children have been drinking the water from one filter; this requires around 40 liters each day. After testing the filter for bacteria, they stated that it was still operating optimally and the students are staying healthy. After this trial period, they ordered 250 more filters so all the students can take one each to their homes for their families.

The team got a full tour of the school and discussed the water project. The students proudly showed the beautiful and sturdy wooden stands that were handcrafted for every filter system. These stands ensure that each filter system has a special place in every home. As the day came to a close the team headed to Kibuye,a small quaint town.

The next two days, consisted of taking a boat on Lake Kivu to Mugonero Hospital to provide demos of the water filter system to hospital administrators and staff. The filters were very well received by all. Roger provided the demo filter systems for immediate use by our volunteers and hospital physicians in the Director’s residence next to the hospital. Roger and the Director headed over to the residence to set-up the filters. The tap water ran brown. It was terrible to see yet reinforced the need to provide safe water even when indoor plumbing was available.

A five hour drive to Butare (Huye), the old capitol of Rwanda, demonstrated the challenges of distribution. Upon arrival the team toured the University Hospital (a teaching hospital) and met with the Director and several doctors and administrators to conduct demonstrations and discuss the water filtration situation at this beautiful hospital. They’ve been using several water filters for over one year. The doctors shared that they no longer have parasites now after using the filters. Everyone was extremely pleased with the filters performance and felt noticeably healthier. To increase this measurable impact of GA2030, Roger provided an additional 10 filters for the hospital to implement.

Although this was Roger’s first time in Butare, he quickly found a coffee shop to reflect on what he had learned. Roger spent the night at a hostel where he connected with two World Vision volunteers on the trip. That evening two women and their children had arrived on the bus to visit to re-unite with these volunteers that have supported them over the years. Touched by how World Vision, like GA2030, maintains personal connections with those they impact, Roger provided both families a demonstration on how to assemble, clean the water filter system he provided each of them to take home.

After a visit to the Rwanda National Museum, the entire exhausted team began the long trip back to Kigali. The last long ride. Roger rode silently, eyes wide-open, smiling, enjoying every last moment of this beautiful country. A sincere look that anyone who has traveled with Roger is familiar with.

On the last day there was no time for rest. Back in the lush open air meeting room, Roger regrouped with both business and religious leaders to understand the challenges of Rwanda from setting up a business entity, establishing local fulfillment, identifying communities in need, and finally getting supplies from a city center through several kilometers of unpredictable remote roadways. The religious leaders provided valuable insights to communities that would benefit from immediate support throughout Central and East African countries.

The Archbishop of Rwanda had spread the word regarding Roger and the work GA2030 was doing throughout the region. That afternoon, leaders from Burundi, Congo, and Tanzania showed up to learn about the goals of GA2030 and the water filter system. It was incredible!

Having not moved from the most beautiful place to hold meetings all day, the founder and director of Arise Rwanda came by to provide a larger picture of the water situation in Rwanda. He and Roger set out to tour the town and see firsthand how people were producing, distributing, and selling water.

This was a perfect end to the trip and beginning to many new relationships to help provide access to safe drinking water in the upcoming decade.