Community Activists make our programs in Nyabiheke refugee camp possible. These are residents of the camp, who volunteer their time to help when our team there needs a few extra hands – which is pretty often. They help us reach every corner of the camp with important messages about health and disease prevention, preventing violence and protecting one another.
Community Activists, and their relationships and connections to their specific neighborhoods, are the bedrock of our humanitarian efforts in Nyabiheke.
So, when we heard the Community Activists (or CAs) were setting up a canteen cooperative – basically a restaurant that would provide some small financial support to all of them – we wanted to know more.
“They have a small building with two rooms, tables and chairs,” said our Nyabiheke Site Manager Victor, “but there’s no kitchen. And they don’t have the basic items they need to operate a canteen.”
We wanted to do something to help a group that does so much for our team and for their community.
They had started a foundation for a small kitchen behind the building, but construction had stalled with not enough funds. So we provided the funds for them to keep on building – to complete the walls and put a roof on the canteen structure.
Our visitors from the U.S. stopped by to see the construction work in progress. The separate kitchen will allow them the space to cook more items and not bother their customers in the restaurant area with the smell of smoke from cooking fires.
But a kitchen is just the first step in setting the CA Canteen up for success….
