Rwanda Grassroots Self Help Groups
Nyamagabe is located more than 2 hours from the capital city Kigali and is the poorest district in Rwanda. It has 17 sectors, with a population of about 350,000 people. In 12 sectors, most live on less than US$1 per day with poor land quality and difficulty accessing clean water. Some people have income from working as farmers or laborers in farms, but most are pretty much helpless, hopeless, and poverty stricken. The World Bank defines the international poverty threshold to be $2.15 per day (AUD 3.33).
Over the last 20 years, one of the local charity organizations known as African Evangelistic Enterprise (AEE) has been working to establish Self Help Groups within these 12 sectors in Nyamagabe to support, educate and train women to borrow, save and invest money, and leverage their resources to earn income, provide for their families, and become self-sufficient. Each woman is encouraged with the help of micro financing to work in their own micro businesses producing crop (avocadoes, carrots, maize, potatoes, wheat etc) or livestock (rabbit, chickens, goats, pigs, cows) or products (baskets etc) to generate income.
The average investment of AUD 40 per woman will enable the support system to support, educate and train her to change her life and become self-sufficient within 1 year (or less!), which in turn will enable her family of 5 persons to rise out of poverty! With the passing of time, many of these women grow in self-confidence, creative ideas, leadership. Many women who have previously suffered great pain and bitter struggles, suddenly experience the exhilaration of being able to afford to purchase soap for washing oneself, to prepare 3 nutritious meals for their family each day, fulfil personal dreams of pursuing certified education, funding the needs of their husbands and children, and even the community church pastor and local council member!
ActionLove Australia has in November 2025 ‘adopted’ 400 such women who will form 4 Self Help Groups in 2 villages in Nyamagabe. It will be very exciting to see the extreme transformation of these 400 women by end 2026.
Notes on Rwanda:
• Previously ravaged by civil war and genocide that was incited by its corrupt and greedy colonial masters, the Rwandan people under its visionary government and leadership has today conquered its demons and managed to rise and become a shining example of economic growth and productivity in Africa.
• Rwanda is known as “the land of a thousand hills” or “the little Singapore of Africa” and the government closely monitors its population to ensure zero tolerance for corruption and zero tolerance for crime.
• Despite its small size ~26,400 km2 in comparison with its African neighbours, Rwanda with little resources and heavy reliance on agriculture, is now one of the fastest growing and most productive economies in the world.
