The Mayor of Kamonyi District, Thadee Tuyizere, attended the DelAgua distribution led by District Manager Bruno Nyirimana at the stadium at Remera Cell recently.
It was a really special day as 300 stoves were safely distributed to families. The household heads gathered early to be registered then each was given their stove plus user guide and owner certification.
The team of Community Health Workers using their DelAgua smartphones scanned the unique barcode on the stove along with the recipient’s details, which were then uploaded onto the database ensuring individual tracking of each stove and household. The Mayor presented stoves and also saw a demonstration by Bruno of the stove in action. National media were in attendance and the distribution was reported on TV, press and radio. The Mayor was interviewed and praised the partnership with DelAgua and the objective of distributing stoves not just to Kamonyi District but to the whole of rural Rwanda. The mayor was impressed with the tracking and evaluation allowed by the technology which will inform and enable the development of further projects with DelAgua such as solar. The mayor was particularly pleased with the impact that the stoves will have on local forestry. Gathering the large quantities of wood required for traditional 3 stone fires was causing deforestation and the DelAgua stoves will significantly reduce this as they need half the amount of wood and just small twigs which can be gathered locally without damaging the forests.
The DelAgua team were also in Ruhango District, Byimana Sector, Kamusenyo Cell where they distributed 1285 stoves. The villagers arrived early in the morning and despite the large numbers and great excitement about receiving the stove, were careful to respect the Covid rules and queued socially distanced and masked, waiting for their turn.
The Community Health Workers registered each household and distributed the stoves. It was a long day but a very successful one, led by District Manager Furaha Ferdinand. Furaha has been with DelAgua since 2016 and is very experienced in running the Tubeho Neza distributions. Furaha’s next distribution was in Gisagara District, Muganza Sector and Sector Executive Secretary Mr. Nkunda Alex visited to see the distribution taking place. Ferdinand reports that he was happy to see his people receiving stoves and wanted to take a picture with them to remember this exciting day. Mr Nkunda said “This is a very interesting activity as it is going to change my people’s lives”.
These distributions bring the total number of stoves provided to 602,000 helping more than 3 million Rwandans.
