By Annette Scarpitta | Program Founder and Project Leader, USA
Happy Giving Tuesday (and beyond!) to all!
We have much to celebrate: The women's business literacy program is moving into a new, more advanced stage; we are poised to hold our third biennial peace summit; and recently, special achievement and recognition came to practicing women botanists of Rwenena. They may not hold a diploma, but they know the plants around them and have found uses for them in innovative and practical ways.
Last month, a Rwenena delegation of 7 Pama Kaci women and 2 men attended a workshop held by a team of experts at FOPAC-SK, including our project co-director and senior agroecologist, Jean Marie RUHANAMIRINDI. The theme was bio-pesticides in the face of climate change, with a focus on controlling insects and fungi that devastate crops, livestock feed, and more. Contingents of agricultural producers from 7 communities throughout South Kivu Province earned invitations based on promising innovations.
Day 1 featured presentations from each delegation on theoretical aspects of their work. Subsequent discussions provided a platform for sharing experiences and new ideas. Each innovation used commonly found plants and other attainable materials.
Rwenena’s presenter was the community’s respected and credentialed veterinarian, who has steadfastly accompanied Pama Kaci women on their journey to entrepreneurship from the time an earlier livestock production program launched in 2018.
On Day 2, all participants traveled to the vocational agriculture school in Luberizi. There, the women’s contingent from Rwenena demonstrated the mixing and processing of two formulas. The first calls for garlic, onion, and chili. It is used for livestock feed and in the production of a versatile, organic bio-insecticide associated with liquid soaps to improve its adhesive power. For the second formula, they explained and demonstrated the anti-fungal power of tobacco mixed with palm oil.
Day 3 brought all the applications to specific plants in demonstration plots, including eggplant, rice, corn, and tomatoes.
Products presented and demonstrated by all 7 groups were judged. The Rwenena contingent placed third – not bad for a community that was routinely disparaged in the not-too-distant past! For this recognition, they received the gift of a goat and two pans of preparation of each product presented.
Each team received a kit of equipment for packaging the bio-pesticides.
With the workshop results affirming the value of women’s skills and accomplishments, some participants marched to demonstrate the great demands and burdens placed on women. In Congolese society, women are expected to assume total responsibility for financial contribution as well as to keep up with household chores and the labors of motherhood.
We are proud to reflect on the steady progress of people in Rwenena. Many men there - though not yet all - have seen firsthand the socio-economic advantages of dividing responsibilities among family members. In the first quarter of 2024, we plan to offer a male sensitization summit aimed at skeptics.
For this and other goals to become reality, we rely on your generosity. Our programming has proven successful and impactful as we continue to advance different facets of community-led development.
Thank you for your kind support.
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