Monthly Archives: April 2025

On March 24, 2025, young people belonging to the Imbaduko y’Iterambere – Murambi Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) group, supported by the Gera Ku Ntego (GKN) project, built a house for the family of Eric Nteziryayo (married with two children) living in Murambi village, Ntanga cell, Mugesera sector, Ngoma district, Eastern Province.

One of the members of the Imbaduko y’Iterambere – Murambi group proposed the idea of providing shelter for him as a Group Service Activity, which they had been trained to do. The rest of the group enthusiastically welcomed the idea. Twelve members, along with five other young individuals from the neighbourhood who were not part of the group, participated in the construction work. Eric’s house had recently been destroyed by natural disasters resulting from torrential rains, causing the roof to blow off and the walls to collapse.

The house measures 4 meters by 5 meters and includes two bedrooms, a living room, and a hallway. It has twelve metal tiles. To build it, these young people purchased no materials other than bamboo and contributed to community work by digging the ground, drawing water, working the mud, placing bamboo on the felled trees, and pouring the mud on top. The total cost of the work was Rwf 78,000.

At the end of this activity, Florence Niyimenya, GKN’s field officer in Mugesera sector, thanked these young people and urged them to continue conducting such charitable activities and forming internal savings and credit groups to reduce the number of young people involved in drugs and other bad behaviors. She emphasized that young people are the fastest-growing force in nation-building.

The Gera Ku Ntego (GKN) Youth Project is a CRS-initiated project aimed at strengthening a sustainable pathway to scaling youth-focused approaches that address needs, opportunities, and priorities in Rwanda. The project is implemented by four Caritas dioceses (Butare, Cyangugu, Byumba, and Nyundo) in close collaboration and coordination with Caritas Rwanda. It builds on existing relationships with key stakeholders capable of achieving large-scale results, including the government, the private sector, and the Church, to strengthen their collective action aimed at improving access to formal finance and entrepreneurship. These are the main obstacles to the creation and expansion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for young people in Rwanda.

In order to help them come out of poverty and become self-reliant, Caritas Rwanda, with the support from UNHCR, through its Graduation Project, supported 50 Sudanese refugees and other asylum seekers from Mahama refugee camp by providing them with various trainings, including SILC methodology, and the project provided them with Rwf 800,000 each, to help them implement their small income-generating projects.

After the training, they formed two SILC groups. Each SILC group is typically structured with around 25 female participants in one group and 25 male participants in another. They meet regularly to contribute to a shared savings pool, which members can borrow from to support their personal or business financial needs.

By the end of March 2025 (4 months after they began saving in their SILC groups), they have saved Rwf 1,448,350 and learnt how to use internal loans. At the moment, Rwf 1,092,200 is the total amount of internal loans.

Testimony from one of the SILC members

Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) play a vital role in fostering economic empowerment and self-sufficiency among refugees and asylum seekers. These groups serve as a gateway to financial inclusion, allowing individuals to save, access small loans, and strengthen their financial resilience.

Ibrahim Altayib Namriyn is member of the Entrepreneur Passages SILC Group, a savings and internal lending community group made up of Sudanese and other minority refugees. This group has played a crucial role in his business expansion. As he says, “Being part of this SILC group is very important for me. Instead of borrowing money from friends, I got a loan of Rwf 60,000 to purchase pesticides. I repaid it with a small interest. Now, I plan to take a larger loan to expand my project”.

In fact, after benefiting from the training on Entrepreneurship and Modern Agriculture and receiving a cash grant of Rwf 800,000 from the Graduation Project; Ibrahim invested in growing vegetables. Since he has installed the irrigation systems in a plot of land he rents Rwf 250,000 per year, he can earn income even during the dry season. He anticipates earning at least Rwf 3,400,000 from his first harvest of cabbage and okra.

 

UBUMWE SILC group testimony

Following a training on SILC methodology facilitated by the ECD Project funded by Plan International Rwanda and implemented by Caritas Rwanda in the Gatsibo, Nyaruguru and Bugesera districts, 30 parents of children enrolled in the Tuganire home-based ECD formed a SILC group (Ubumwe) and invested in poultry farming to feed their children with nutritious meals and develop economically.

In the beginning, the Ubumwe SILC group from Gatsibo District used to save Rwf 200 per week with a goal of purchasing hens for every parent. Before distributing the hens, they distributed goats (two parents shared one goat) after the first saving year.

After discovering that goats were not profitable, they switched to raising chickens. This poultry farming opened the business door to group members, as you can discover in the following video :