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Cyangugu: Mud to Brick House (Virginia Murekatete)
At age 39, Virginia Murekatete is the envy of many in the Nyamasheke District of western Rwanda. Virginia and her husband, Gratien Karera, began farming coffee thirteen years ago and so far they have much to celebrate from the crop.
She tells us “This coffee has practically seen us through life. We look back and hardly believe our lives transformed so much”. She attributes this to the increase in coffee income and to the advice she received from an agricultural extension officer at that time.
“I did not know which crop to plant. But when the agricultural officer visited us and said our land was best suited for coffee, we agreed to try it out. We started with 500 trees in 1994 and to date we have increased the number to 1000”.
Of her coffee income and improvement in social status, Virginia credits three straight years of good harvest. She says:
“We lived in a very poor quality mud house, with an old leaking iron roof. That house had 5 small rooms with no running water or electricity. Three years ago, based on our track record of coffee harvest and regular income, we managed to acquire a loan of Rwandan Francs 2 million from a local cooperative bank to start the process of building our new home”.
She repeats that income from coffee was all they needed to secure the loan.
Virginia, who has five children of her own and one informally adopted from her cousin, says that because of the coffee harvest, she is able to send all the children to school. Of her adopted daughter she says “My cousin Veronica Bamurange and her husband Vincent live on one of the islands on Lake Kivu and her family mainly relies on fishing for income. One day as we were getting ready to go to the farm, my cousin’s daughter, Colyme Kevime, then aged nine, visited us unexpectedly.”
Asked if everything at home was alright, she replied that she had not eaten and her schooling had been stopped because her parents could no longer afford basic needs. She said she wanted to live with Virginia as she considered the aunt more capable than her own parents. Virginia and her husband discussed this and agreed to keep the child.
In 2007 Virginia encouraged her neighbor’s collaboration to connect piped water for a sum split equally between the two families. In 2008, they teamed up again to connect electricity from a nearby coffee washing station, sharing this cost between three families and giving her new house mod-con’s the old never had.
Other benefits she attributes to coffee income include buying land, planting 300 more coffee trees and the purchase of a heifer which has since calved. She would like to ensure continuity in her children’s education, including the adopted girl.
Virginia joined the cooperative in 2008 and is grateful to it for providing her the opportunity to join and ensure her family receives regular income.
Peet’s Uzuri African Blend and Rwanda Lake Kivu coffees are part of the Rwanda Initiative.
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