Rwanda
In Rwanda, Spark MicroGrants (www.sparkmicrogrants.org) is working with communities to develop and implement their own projects on a range of topics including decreasing HIV stigma, improving access to clean water and improving nutrition. Spark MicroGrants supports community led development through a proposal development process and awarding small grants for the implementation of their project ideas. Spark MicroGrants is now ready to launch an assessment and advocacy effort called Spark Voice. Between June and August 2011 I will carry out preliminary evaluations on the results of each MicroGrant project. I will also help record and promote the stories that communities share on their development. All this will be published on the Spark MicroGrants website (in Spark Voice). Personal Narrative:
I was a bit anxious to travel to Rwanda having not met the team I would be working with and, unlike most grantees, not having any Hopkins affiliated contacts in country. My luck had it that the weather was so bad coming into Kigali, Rwanda that my flight was diverted to Entebbe, Uganda. After a stressful day in Entebbe, I waited in the airport for my connecting flight to Kigali. An American and a Ugandan sat in front of me discussing the merits of Dambisa Moyo’s book, Dead Aid. The American had noticed the book in the Ugandan’s briefcase and decided to strike a conversation. What neither of them noticed was the Rwandan man an ear shot away who had clearly read the book as well. He rolled his eyes at their points. This was possibly the perfect way to begin my exploration of health, aid and the power of community development. It taught me that everyone has ideas and while we as academics often discuss the merits of other academics, often times, we can gain the most insight by asking the average individual who is poised to benefit from development of their ideas. I went to Rwanda knowing no Kinyarwanda and hardly any French. I expected communication to be difficult but could have never quite expected to rely so heavily on the kindness and patience of other. This trip really taught me the value of a smile and a nod. I got by not by my own doing but through the help of my colleague, friend and de facto translator Ernest Ngabo, a third year journalism student at the National University of Rwanda (NUR). My time in Rwanda not only allowed me to network and learn about other institutions working in health and development, it also allowed me to hone in on my own interests. Because of the size of Rwanda (roughly the size of Maryland) I had the chance to travel the whole country in just a few hours time. My work was only possible because of the hospitality of communities. The summer of 2011 was an especially interesting time in Rwanda because of the scheduled July price hikes of the national health insurance. Rwanda has nationalized health insurance known as “mutuelle.” In July 2011 the price of mutuelle went from roughly two dollars a person annually to nearly five dollars for the poorest. In addition, the government instituted a progressive price system based on family income. The government also provided subsidized insurance to the poorest 1%, ethnically known as the Batwa. Almost every individual I met, regardless of ethnicity, was concerned with how they would afford insurance for their families after July. In addition, many of the Batwa were unsure if the government would continue to subsidize their health care. In such an environment, I began my work in Rwanda, focusing primarily on food security since the community I collaborated with to pilot my monitoring and evaluation plan had been given a grant to grow potatoes. Rwanda is a nation predominantly reliant on subsistence farming. My primary community, the Nyabageni, was located in the Northern District of Musanze near the Volcanoes National Park. Sitting on the foothills of the Volcanoes, the Nyabageni were a community mixed between ethnic lines. Prior to Spark MicroGrants involvement with the community there was a great deal of mistrust amongst the various ethnic groups within the community. Some of that mistrust was still existent during my time there, forcing me to encounter and overcome difficult and sensitive situations. I learned to work in an environment where the cultural norms and stigmas were very different from my own. I could not have successfully done this without the support of my facilitator, Ernest. I believe my time with Spark MicroGrants really taught me the importance of field experience. For most of my academic career I have written opinion papers about the merits of different global programs. These opinions hold little weight in the absence of a true applied experience. I know I will continue to work in the field of global health and am confident that I will continue to pursue projects in country. I have continued to work with Spark MicroGrants from Baltimore and hope to maintain a lasting relationship with the colleagues I have there. They are truly an inspiring bunch of people who are working to empower communities to take control of their own development. Through working with Spark I have had the opportunity to learn more about local solutions and the various NGOs working on community-led development. Photo Album:
 | As part of my work in Rwanda I conducted interviews with community members to determine how they felt about the microgranting process as well as to determine levels of empowerment. This picture is of Ernest, a community member and myself. |  | We visited the Nyabageni Community just days after their first potato harvest. They used their microgrant money to rent land and harvest potatoes in order to gain better food security. |  | After the second planting we celebrated with the Nyabageni Community. This community had overcome so much in order to plan and implement a project. It was amazing to see them all come together and put their mistrust of one another behind them. |  | We visited with a microgrant community of HIV positive women who used their funding to develop an animal husbandry project. The women had developed and documented a way of distributing newborn animals to women who had not received an animal from the original grant money. Many chose sheep and goats because they require fewer resources to keep healthy, unlike cows. |  | This picture was taken at my first community meeting. We discussed the potatoes they would soon harvest and their plans for selling as well as keeping some potatoes. We made every effort to guide the community dialogue through questions rather than statements about what they should or shouldn’t do. |
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