The difference two years makes for families living in extreme poverty

Green Graduation helps people address the barriers that keep them living in extreme poverty, such as food insecurity and social inequality, while also promoting sustainable approaches and improving people’s resilience to climate change. In places like Burundi and Rwanda, climate change is having an increasingly negative impact on rural livelihoods.  

Over a two-year period, Green Graduation participants receive technical and business skills training, financial literacy training, access to financial services such as Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) and coaching and mentoring to improve their well-being and relationships with others. 

We revisited the families we spoke to at the beginning of the programme in 2023, to learn how they’ve been able to use the skills and resources they’ve gained to make positive changes in their lives.   

Aloyiziya Niyinkamiye, 30, is supporting three children on her own. Two years ago, she was doing odd jobs as a casual farmer but could not earn enough to feed her family, telling Concern: “There are many times we go without eating. As a mother, I feel sad a lot. I am always crying.” 

Today, the children - Sonia, Divine and Vianney – eat twice a day.  

“We eat rice, sweet potatoes, cassava, beans, vegetables, small fish, so that the kids can have a good, balanced meal,” Aloyiziya says. 

She sells avocados and tomatoes twice a week, buying them and reselling them in the market for a profit. She also farms on rented land, and feeds her children with what she grows.  

“I’m a completely new person,” Aloyiziya says. “Me personally, because I had lots of problems, whenever I saw the kids I could feel it’s not going well. But they gave us training, regarding all kids as the same - if it’s a girl, if it’s a boy, you have to take care of them the same way and value them the same way. That lesson has helped me. I love my kids more than anything else.”    

Aloyiziya is part of a VSLA where she learned how to save and invest what she earns, and received a cash transfer from Concern as part of the programme. She has used the money to buy soap and clothing for her children, along with purchasing school supplies.  

“If I have 10,000 francs [£5.20] and I get interest off 2000, I take 1000. I buy rice for them and get beans that I have in my garden. I’m able to get school materials like books.” 

Before, only her eldest was able to go to school with the support of a neighbour. But today, all the children are studying. There is more harmony in her household now and Aloyiziya often plays with her children. 

“The kids play – they like being here under the tree, they play with the soccer ball. They play here and they look so happy.”  

Bella Nsabimana, 22, and her husband Egide Niyonkuru, 27, have two children, three-year-old Queen and baby Calvin. Two years ago, Bella and Egide worked casual jobs farming and making bricks. 

“There is a difference between then and now,” Bella says. “Before, it may happen that we spend the whole day without eating and even the night, but nowadays we have something to eat in the afternoon and evening.”  

With the trainings the family received, Bella has begun earning an income by buying bananas in bulk and selling them at a profit, while her husband has started a hair salon. With their savings, the family has been able to repair their home and purchase livestock.  

“In the past time, I used to live in the very poorest conditions, because I used to live in a house where I couldn’t sleep during the night when it rained. Now you can see I have a beautiful house I’m living in,” Bella says. “Before I didn’t have cattle, now you know I have hens, goats, even a cow. Now I am living a life that really makes me proud.”  

Bella is also a member of her local VSLA, where she plays an important role as the cashier. 

“I feel very well as they put confidence in me to be a cashier in the VSLA. We are 25 members, we gather once a week,” she says. 

In the past, when someone in the family became ill they could not go to the clinic. But today, Bella is no longer as worried about how to afford medical care for herself and her family, thanks to the VSLA. 

“Sometimes when the children get sick it may happen that we don't have money at home, and we are obliged to bring her to the hospital. But as we are in the VSLA, we go there to borrow some money, and we get it without any problems,” she explains.  

In the future, Bella plans on opening a local grocery: “I think that in coming years I’ll have a good shop here in the community, where all members of the VSLA will come to get anything to eat like cassava, beans, bananas, and then I’ll be generating income in that way and at the highest level.”   

When we first met Theogene, he was 16 years-old. He and his younger brother lived together without their parents and neither attended school. They largely received support from their community, with Theogene often working in exchange for food.  

“Things are not going well. I tell my little brother to sleep. Then the next morning, I will go and look for a job so that he gets food and doesn’t starve,” Theogene said at the time. 

Today, Theogene’s life has changed. He received training on how to grow and harvest his crops for the best result, and rents land where he grows beans, cassava, and other produce, which he sells at the market. As a member of the VSLA, he has learned how to save and invest what he earns. He used these savings to purchase a bicycle, so that he can take items to and from the market. 

He has gone from working for other people to hiring people to work for him. “Sometimes I work by myself, other times I pay other people through my savings,” he shares.  

Today, his brother stays with their mother and Theogene now lives alone. Theogene continues to support his brother so that he can go to school.  

“We both take care of him, my mother and I. He gets school materials, uniform, clothes, shoes, we’re able to pay tuition for school fees,” Theogene says. 

In addition to farming, Theogene is also keeping a hive of 12 bees. So far he has harvested five kilograms of honey. From this, he sold four kilograms at the market and kept one kilogram for himself.   

“My days are good,” he says. “When I'm not in the farm, I go take care of my bees. If I’m not there, I take my bicycle. Everything has its own timing, I take care of everything.” 

Now he tries to give back to the neighbours that supported him in the past by teaching them what he’s learned in Green Graduation. 

“I always give them ideas - if you do this, you’ll get manure, if you do your garden like this, everything will be perfect. I direct them,” he says. 

In the future, he says: “I want my life to be better, I see how others have gone on to another level. I can help others as how I was able to be helped.” 

Perousse Bivugire, 42, and Andre Kabiteranije, 50, have four children. Once struggling to feed her family while working as a casual farmer for other people, Perousse’s life has taken a positive turn.  

Perousse shares: “I am thankful for Concern’s programme because it helped me. I was living in bad conditions, a house which was really miserable because it was made with palm leaves and covered by grasses. It was really bad, but now I thank Concern’s programme because it helped me to move and get to the stage I’m in.” 

Today she rents land where she grows her own crops such as cassava and beans with the training she received. 

“When I get the harvest in the farm, one part is for the family to be eaten and the other part I sell in order to generate income, for buying soaps or other materials for the family,” she says.   

In 2023, Perousse said: “My children’s health is very bad. Since we don't have our own land to cultivate food, we try our best, but that's how we are living. I try my best so that I can give them nutritious food as much as I can.” 

Happily this is no longer the case. Her children now eat multiple meals a day and follow a balanced diet that Perousse learned about in Green Graduation. 

“The life for the children has improved in health, because I see that for them now I get all categories of food,” Perousse shares. “Nowadays I have everything they can eat and their life is going well. They live without any problems.”   

By participating in the VSLA, and with her cash transfer, Perousse was able to rebuild her home and buy items for the family that she didn’t have before, including cutlery and dishes for eating meals. They family has even been able to buy a pig. 

In the future, they would like to have more livestock. 

“I hope that I have two goats to add to the animals that I have here in the family, and also I hope that life will improve more than these days,” Perousse says.  

In the past two years, Nadine Umuhoza, 33, and Theoneste Hatugimana, 40, have seen their life together improve.  “I no longer have stress,” Theoneste says. “I sleep well, my kids go to school, we have health insurance.” 

Two years ago, Nadine told Concern: “It takes manure to produce a good harvest. But we don't get manure. That's the challenge. And we also don't get a harvest because of too much sun. We had some beans growing in the plot, but they were destroyed.” 

Through Green Graduation, Theoneste and Nadine have learned new farming techniques to improve their harvest, including how to make organic fertiliser.  

Theoneste rents land where he farms fruit, eggplant, cabbage and carrots. He sells these at the market to earn an income for his family. In their home garden, the family grows beans, papaya and mango.  

“I learned how to farm, I rented some land,” he says. “I have a pig now, before I didn’t have any livestock.”  

Their three children would sometimes go an entire day without eating, but this is no longer the case. They now eat twice a day and receive a meal at school.  

Before, the family was unsure how they could afford to send their children to school, even though it was their priority that the children received an education. But today, they are part of a VSLA which makes it easier for them to pay for books, uniforms and shoes. 

The family has also been able to renovate their house, fixing the roof, sides, and the back area. Now, Theoneste says: “I have courage in my work.”