COW PROGRAM: Cow Donation Ceremony 2022 in Kingi

This year, SACOLA gratefully received additional funding from Charlette Adams and immediately prepared a cow donation ceremony in one of the villages in Kinigi. 25th September 2022, 14 additional cows were ready to be donated to local women. SACOLA’s chairman, Pierre Célestin NSENGIYUMVA gathered local villagers into the community centre.

After the briefing, SACOLA’s members lead the local women recipients off to meet these cows. 14 cows stand in a row and were hitched onto trees (Fig 2). One-by-one, each local woman picked a letter, on which the cow's name can be found, and each cow was allocated to its belonger. In spite of the economic hardships created by COVID-19, SACOLA members and Sweet Charlette are determined to continue to bless and uplift the lives of women in the Kinigi region.

Fig 2 A row of cows hitch on trees.

Finally, SACOLA chairman, Pierre Célestin NSENGIYUMVA, manager of the Governor's Camp Sabinyo Lodge, Michael Hughes, SACOLA international volunteer, Yu-Feng HO have a group picture with a local villager and her received cow, as the end of this invaluable ceremony (Fig 3).

Fig. 3 A group picture of the representative of local villagers, SACOLA, international volunteer and Governor's Camp Sabinyo

SACOLA welcomes our new volunteer after COVID-19

Recovering from the pandemic, SACOLA welcomes the first volunteer, Yu-Feng Ho, from Taiwan. Yu-Feng has a background of agriculture and environmental management. He used to study Agronomy, Bachelor of Science at National Taiwan University (Taiwan) and Environment and Resource Management, Master of Science at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

He brings us skills and tips for managing projects and generates some value and ideas. He stays with us for 6 weeks and we are glad to host him in Rwanda. Every work that has been done benefits the local communities.

SACOLA welcomes our new volunteer to Kinigi

SACOLA welcomes our new volunteer to Rwanda, Meenal Patel. She joins us from London, England where she was working in the financial services industry for 12 years. Meenal brings both financial and business skills and will be working with our Women Empowerment program. She graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with a Bachelors degree in Economics. She will be working with us for 4 weeks. We are excited to have her working alongside us and look forward to seeing her impact. Most welcome!