The PROCOM Farm

Last weekend we headed to the very eastern province of Rwanda - almost to the Tanzania border. We drove around three hours down very bumpy, dirt roads, through pretty remote and secluded villages on our way to the PROCOM Farm. PROCOM is a local non-governmental organization here in Rwanda run by the co-founder of GoED and our "Social Context for Community Development" professor, Dwight Jackson. PROCOM (The full name being The Organization for the Promotion of Rwandan Communities) is an organization which seeks to walk alongside vulnerable Rwandan families and communities to promote community transformation by means of Agricultural development, the implementation of water pumps and water sanitation, economic engagement, and community resilience. Dwight has been teaching us mostly about his farm which promotes agricultural development here in Rwanda. Essentially what PROCOM is doing is planting alongside Rwandan farmers, developing relationships with these farmers so they can understand more effective ways of farming. I found this method really new and interesting. Because Rwandan farmers have been practicing the same methods of farming for centuries, simply telling them to farm a different way won't change the country's normative structure. PROCOM instead farms alongside Rwandan farmers, using different methods by studying the land, the climate, and the crop to produce a larger yield at a better time. As Rwandan farmers have talked with PROCOM farmers and as they have seen the results of the PROCOM farm, they have already started implementing these new farming methods in their own farms - and hopefully these methods will catch on to many other farmers in Rwanda. By setting up the model farm in Rwanda, even the smallest local farmers will be able to see what is happening and learn about ways to improve their own farms. 


Farming is the most popular way of providing sustenance and doing business here in Rwanda(especially in the villages). If these village communities are able to not only provide essential food and water for their families, but find a way to build a market through farming, they will be able to keep up with the rest of Rwandan society as Rwanda is moving rapidly from a subsistence economy to a market economy. PROCOM is essentially striving to alleviate poverty in these villages by progressing their farming techniques. I believe the reason PROCOM is so successful is because Dwight has worked in Rwanda long enough to understand the flow of society, the changing nature of it's social structures, and the way its government and economy functions in order to make systematic changes within this society. Rwanda is starting from a very different place economically, governmentally, and socially than the western world; therefore, we need to understand their social economy before we can try to help in making changes to developing their country. I think it is genius of PROCOM not to push their ways of farming on the community. Instead they lead by example - and i think this is the most noteworthy way to lead. 

"He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths" Isaiah 2:3

After sleeping a very uncomfortable and stiff night on the cement floor of the new building recently built at the farm, we all woke up around 6:30 to participate in community work day in the nearest village to the PROCOM farm. This day in Rwanda is called "Umuganda" - a day in which everyone in the community stops their regular work to instead work on community projects such as building, weeding, planting, etc.. Although we had some inclination that everyone would be starring at us and gathering around us, we really had no idea what we were in for. It is probably around once a year these people see any white person traveling through their villages - and for some, it is the only time they have ever seen a white person. As soon as we got into town, we had acquired at least 20 kids walking with us. When we got to the center of this community, every single person in the village must have been crowding around us - i'm guessing around 200+ people. We knew now, not much work was going to get done. 


We finally ended up at a school yard weeding with these 100+ children - some weeding with us, most just observing or laughing or wondering why we were there. Weeding was pretty ambiguous as us Americans had no idea what were weeds and what wasn't. Apparently some grass was good, some grass was bad. We had no idea, so we had to point to different types asking children to say "yego" - Yes, or "oya" - no. We had fun hanging out with the kids, learning Kinyarwanda from the men and just interacting with the community. Walking back to the farm was going to be difficult as all 200+ children clearly were going to walk back with us - all trying to hold our hands. As you can see here, we gave in to a few :)

Coming back from the farm, it became so normal for us to see every - literally every - head turn and stare at us driving through the villages. It took about three hours to get home and it felt SO luxurious to have a real toilet, a shower, a bed, and clean clothes. 

Some children during Umuganda

      Coming back from the farm, we went to a small church way deep in the villages on the boarder of Tanzania. Dwight is working here in these villages to provide clean water and to fix their three water pumps that all do not work at the moment. This is a picture of the children's choir who sang Sunday morning.