‘Hoe kijkt coördinator Pascal Habimpano terug op het project
De partner vertelt... van 16 november 2021 door Pascal Habimpano
Elk jaar vragen we onze partner hoe het project is gegaan en welke lessen de partner heeft geleerd.
Context and summary
Describe the original plan/idea for the project. Has the project been executed as planned?
Karangiro is one of the areas of CASE project implementation funded by Help a Child Rwanda. In this area, the project established 10 Self Help Groups (SHG) and one Cluster Level Association (CLA); when community members were identifying their needs, a facility for early childhood development was put at the top of the list. The need was to establish an ECD Centre in Karangiro village near the Cell office. While looking for a solution to the community need identified, the Local Government (cell, sector, and District levels) engaged a discussion with AEE Rusizi in request for support. AEE Rusizi communicated the request to its local partner, “Help a Child Rwanda” who alerted Mr. Gerlof and Nicolien; World Servants (WS) set up team on their visit to Rwanda in 2019. Based on feedback received, the World Servants agreed to finance the project for ECD construction in Karangiro village.
Initially, the plan was to build an ECD composed of 3 children rooms, a management’s office, 1 kitchen, and toilets by the year 2020 on the plot near Karangiro Cell office offered by Rusizi District. But due to COVID-19 pandemic outbreak early 2020, the team could not travel to Rwanda to team up with the local community in the ECD project implementation as they usually do. Following that, the World Servant team requested to book the Karangiro plot for 2021 projects. In the meantime, the district established a new primary school in Karangiro cell, Gihusi village. This is why the ECD centre was proposed to relocate from the original site where it was standing alone, to the newly constructed primary school. This would facilitate management and take over by the local government.
In 2021, project execution was not done as planned because of the increased spread of Corona Virus at the beginning of 2021. The problem of traveling became a safety concern and forced the world servants Team to cancel their trip to Rwanda but authorized project execution with the community and local masons. The initial proposed site was changed because it was too small to accommodate both an ECD centre and a primary school. This is why the site was shifted to Karangiro cell, in Gihusi village, the nearby plot where a new government primary school was being established. Except the relocation of construction site and the absence of world Servants team, the project was well executed between June and September 2021 although other planned activities such as children program and life skills, children dances, songs and storytelling could not happen. During COVID-19 period, the cost of construction increased, and the cost of casual workers and masons increased due to travel restrictions and limited working hours.
Give a (short) general description of the implementation of the project.
AEE Rusizi implemented the project Karangiro in close collaboration with the Custer Level Association, “Abajyamugambi”, Rusizi District and the local community. The ECD construction project, started in June 2021, and ended in September 2021 with inauguration of the facility composed of 3 classrooms, 1 teachers’ office, 1 CLA Office, a water tank and 8 latrines that included one for PwDs. During the implementation process, we realized that kitchen construction was unnecessary since the Government had constructed a bigger one to serve the primary school, which would also be used for the new ECD. This is why the CLA office was added to the original plan. Also the construction of water tap inside the school, and the bathroom for persons with disabilities were additional to original plan.
To maintain the emotional connection with the World Servants team which was supposed to stay and work on the project together with the community members, Help a Child Rwanda and AEE Rusizi organized one online zoom meeting. During this online interaction, local community members, people at the construction site and the local leaders could meet the World servants volunteers who were working on an alternative project in the Netherlands. This was linkage allowed community members to express their gratitude to the World Servants and encouraged them to work harder on the project.
How do you look back on the following topics? How was it arranged, what went well, what could be done better?
Construction
Buildings worked on
The construction of Karangiro ECD was very well organised. A local site foreman was hired as a construction expert to carry out the work under AEE staff supervision to ensure quality of work and materials management. After hiring a local foreman, local masons and helpers were hired too to carry out the whole project. The selection of local masons and helpers was done by CLA Abajyamugambu with AEE support. CLA Abajyamugambi was the one to purchase local materials and payment of construction workers, whereas AEE remained with the responsibility to purchase and deliver the hardware from construction shops. The construction activity went well, and the video streaming went well. But due to the problem of price fluctuation of construction material and limited working hours during the COVID -19 period, cautious spending was applied to ensure all basic requirements. In the future, the budgets need to include some flexibility to cope with the changing market environment.
Tasks to be done
All construction activities have been completed.
Programs
Children program
not done due to COVID-19
Cultural and touristic outings
Same as above
Life Skills program and Football for Water (also include the amount of tranings given and the number of people from the community actively involved in training).
The Children program, cultural, touristic outings and life skills activities did not take place as the world servant team was absent and due to covid-19, it was not allowed to organize these activities locally, the prevention measures had suspended some activities.
Cooperation and involvement
Leadership team World Servants
Even though the WS team was not around, the community involvement in different activities such as community work “Umuganda” for site levelling and carrying construction materials demonstrated ownership and synergy among the community members.
Local leaders / key persons
Cooperation among different stakeholders at cell to district levels was done before and during the construction process. AEE Rusizi developed and shared the construction roadmap with HaC Rwanda, Rusizi District and Nyakarenzo Sector officials for their awareness on what was going to take place and when. Throughout the construction work, right from the start of the whole project till its completion, different planning meeting with the members of CLA, school leadership, ECD Management committee, Cell and Sector leadership took place. In one of these meetings, the district brought government representatives at the site and provided the necessary advice. Local authorities provided the plot through their collaboration with the Anglican Church, who also actively participated in the ECD inauguration event together with the District Mayor, Army and Police commanders; Anglican Church Pastor, sector and cell staff, CLA representatives, school leaders including ECD Management committee, Help a Child Rwanda and AEE staff.
Community
Included in the above paragraph
Beneficiaries
As mentioned earlier, an online video call was organized to show the community’s involvement and have community members interact with the World Servants team during the ECD construction.
(Local) authorities
included in the above paragraph
Facilitation of the team
Accommodation
did not happen due to COVID-19
Food
Same as above
Transportation
Same as above
Safety
Same as above
Lessons learned
• Despite the hard moment of COVID-19, the Joint plan of AEE team, Local authorities and local leaders conducted every activity necessary on the site and outside, which we found very productive for the implementation of the activities.
• People of Karangiro were very impressed with having such a kind of infrastructure for the benefit of their children.
• Rwandan Local Leaders were found very supportive and collaborative towards execution of the project thus contributing to transforming people’s lives, with priority to children.
• The biggest challenges was COVID-19 spread, which negatively affected the implementation process in terms of material cost, implementation period and youth and children programs.
Recommendations
Construction standards are changing according to HaC’s guidance. In the future, AEE Rusizi will construct following UNICEF’s low cost ECD Standard drawings.
The presence of the World servants volunteers is highly needed in case they are safe to travel due to the huge lost of cultural exchange, children and youth programs. Vaccination efforts have been effective in Rwanda. The field office hopes to have a more comprehensive project the next time the World Servants fund a project in Rusizi District.
ECD construction need is still big in the area of implementation of AEE Rusizi, Help a Child Rwanda should continue the ECD construction projects in order to reach more children who are still lacking access to ECD centres. While selecting the construction sites, priority should be given to plots nearby or within primary schools as this is the government plan to have ECD centres at all primary schools. Help a Child’s monitoring during construction works have been very helpful and should continue in the future.
