Back to Index

Community Visit to Rwizi Community in Mhondoro
Extracted from Kufunda Village Update
May 18, 2004

Late February our Community Program involved 18 community organizers from 8 villages of the Rwizi Community. The Kufunda group returned to Rwizi with a few simple but ambitious goals:

• To plant one million trees
• To each family one compost toilet
• And to support each family and homestead to shift to organic farming and gardening.

Early April, only three weeks after their stay at Kufunda, we went to Rwizi to follow up with the group. Already lots had happened.

Rwizi comprises 14 villages and approximately 7500 people. We were greeted by over 200 people, including all the local headmen, the chief and councillor. They had gathered for a ceremony to acknowledge the ideas and initiative the people who had been at Kufunda had brought back, and also to give them a chance to share what they had accomplished so far.

They have already started moving towards their goals with two model compost toilets at the Kwari AIDS orphanage (in addition to several of the Kufunda participants having built their own in their homesteads), a model permaculture garden also at the orphanage, and 250 leukina trees that have been planted collectively, and several more when counting trees planted by each individual in their homestead.

Additionally new income generating co-operatives have formed by people who returned from Kufunda.

Their spoken intention is to involve and educate the community to be able to join them in the work, and also through their example to realise the power of working as a team. They have started with initial presentations across the community (at all the school and village centres), and will be following up with practical demonstrations once the schools and villages collect the needed material for the different initiatives.

"I don’t know how to express how precious this learning is. Everyone is saying come to my place. Show me how to make the arboloo. I am willing to work hard for my community. For something which makes our community brighter." Juliet, Rwizi

They also wish to repair the community hall to be able to serve as a central place for further learning and for existing and new co-operatives to work from. Although these are all important aims, what strikes me is the power of a group coming together with a shared vision.

Visit the Kufunda Learning Village fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP