Visits Mayange, Rwanda for Millennium Villages Project Documentary

Mayange, Rwanda—Blue Chip Foundation founder Jennifer Gross made her second trip to Rwanda to document the Millennium Villages Project with VII Association photographer Gary Knight and his wife, videographer Fiona Turner.

“Because MVP is a holistic approach to alleviating poverty, it takes time and perspective to discern the magnitude of all of the moving parts that make up this economic model. We were able to document progress in health care, education, infrastructure and agriculture,” said Gross.

Mayange suffers from declining soil fertility and only sporadic rainfall, which puts its entire population at a disadvantage.

“Unlike most of rural Rwanda, where individual homesteads are scattered across the hilly landscape, Mayange has several umudugudus, or settlements, of closely spaced dwellings, which the government built to house returnees after the 1994 genocide,” according to Millennium Villages Project. Gross, Knight, and Turner observed and documented several improvements to the community emplaced by MVP.

Donald Ndahiro, MVP’s team leader in Rwanda, says that there’s been tremendous change during the course of the project.

“The biggest change in the Millennium Village is the change of the mindset of the people. There is more positive now, there is more hope for development. Before when you went to Mayange, people were just asking for food because they were surviving on relief for some time. But now they are able to fend for themselves, so I think it is an empowered community; much better than we found it,” says Ndahiro.

Gross agrees.

“The changes that had occurred in the village in the three years since I first documented the Mayange were outstanding. In my opinion, Mayange has made the most progress out of all the Millennium Villages,” says Gross.

There are numerous success stories coming from Mayange – but among the most notable are from those working to improve crop outputs. Gross spoke with a tomato farmer who had enjoyed significant success adding pineapples to his agricultural roster.

“Diversifying crops brings more income into each household. After a harvest, there is obviously a stall in income, or conditions may have yielded a poor harvest, so having a second or third crop not only ensures that money will continue to flow in the household, but also promotes better nutrition and health throughout the community,” says Gross.

The Millennium Villages Project connected Gross and the VII team with community education workers and health workers, as well. Rwanda’s educational system has not traditionally fostered the academic growth of its children – particularly girls – and classes can sometimes hold as many as 80 children. Dropout rates are high, and secondary education is cost-prohibitive for most families.

“We were able to visit with young girls in a sexual education class. When a girl reaches puberty, she often drops out of school because she doesn’t have maxi pads or a facility to use the restroom. The classroom that had been built was unlike any I have seen in Africa,” says Gross. “The floors were white marble, light was shining in from all four walls of the building, and there were encouraging statements written on the walls. It felt like a safe and special place for girls to come together to rejoice as sisters.”

Gross, Knight, and Turner also visited a well installed by MVP and managed by villagers, spoke with community health workers in the Mayange Health Clinic and observed significant advances in prenatal care, and went to a thriving cattle market where the area’s economic growth was readily apparent.

“Working with Gary Knight and Fiona Turner from VII was insightful as they really zeroed in on which photographs would show that the community had been lifted from poverty. Painted buildings, clothes lined up in markets, and busy workers in co-ops were all examples Gary felt necessary to capture in his photographs to show this was a thriving village,” says Gross. Those photographs, taken for the documentary, display remarkable changes over MVP’s first three years working in the community.