Confronted with hard living conditions for inhabitants of rural areas, Frères des Hommes and DUHAMIC-ADRI, our partner in Rwanda, have developped a carpentry project in the South of the country at Nyakizu. Born in 1980, with the active participation of the Tutsi and Hutu peoples, this project’s main objectives were:

• Engouraging diversification of non-agricultural economic activities in this mountainous region where arable land is scarce
• Developping local revenue by providing quality products locally rather than only expensive and limited imports.

Highly satisfactory and concrete results immediately:

• several tool production workshops were created with marketable outcomes
• the workers high level of woodworking skill enable production also of the more complex needs such as doors, windows and other furniture.
• two new training centres were created in the centre and the North of the country
• as well as basic carpentry training courses on microcredit options, management, access to wood supply, marketing, to complete the needs of users and beneficiaries of the project.

Workers become independent thanks to their on-site production of tools and are so able to diversify with production of windows, doors, furniture, childrens’ toys ...

And then in 1994, a tragical period in Rwanda’s history.

The genocide of 1 million Tutsi and Hutu people ravaged individuals, families and the country. Faced with this horror, Frères des Hommes immediately collected funds to assist survivors denuded of everything. In joint accord with DUHAMIC-ADRI, Frères des Hommes decided to relaunch the project. This was possible thanks to:

• the reconstruction of workshops abandonned during the warl
• help in the organisation of workshop activity whose directors, supervisors and managers had disappeared
• dialoguing with authorities to earn support for local development and reconciliation initiatives