Map of Rwanda

Transforming Lives

Teachers participate in Rwanda’s first math camp.

The year 2013 marked a number of achievements in Rwanda. First, the national airline announced its first female pilot. Then the World Bank ranked Rwanda as the third easiest economy to do business with in sub-Saharan Africa. The country is on a positive path.

Bosco Mureritesi, WCS field botanist caring for the new forest seedlings in the regenerated plots.

New, wild forest seedlings are finally seeing the light again in Rwanda's Nyungwe National Park. They are slowly taking back areas previously covered with a layer of opportunistic ferns. After a wildfire, the forest soil is quickly colonized by a thick, persistent layer of ferns, which thrive in disturbed areas.

Diogene displays his insurance card at the health clinic.

Diogène*, 37, lives in Rwanda’s Eastern province. In March 2012, he began to feel ill. He was short of breath, couldn’t walk up hills, and had chest pains. Luckily for Diogène, he holds community-based health insurance (CBHI), which enabled him to see a doctor at the Ngarama district hospital, where he was diagnosed with heart disease.

Ndayishimiye and Nteziryayo are now friends after overcoming a conflict over land.

Jean Ndayishimiye, 21, lives in Rwanda’s Kirehe district, where he bought a piece of land in 2012. He soon found out that Jean Marie Vianney Nteziryayo, 27, had purchased a piece next to his. Each was interested in increasing the size of their plot, but the only way to do so was to expand into the plot of the other. Both wanting to maintain the full piece of land they’d purchased, a dangerous feud was sparked between the neighbors. 

Smallholder Farm Harvest

USAID and the WFP are working together on a program that feeds the large refugee population while supporting smallholder farmers within Rwanda. 

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