Today’s update comes from Bob Kacvinsky, an agronomist and longtime SPI partner. It’s a rare treat for us to receive such a detailed report of seed distribution and training. We often say that our resources are not a handout. Gardening is hard work, and Bob’s report is a good illustration of the planning that goes into a good program. Rather than summarizing Bob’s work, we’ll share a series of excerpts from his report:
Rwanda is a small country in east central Africa about the size of Maryland. It is a mountainous geography with steep hills and an average elevation of 5500 feet, resulting in a temporal climate with lows in the 60’s and highs typically in the 80’s to low 90’s even though it is just south of the equator. The capital is Kigali (+1.5 million) and served as our home base.
Locally grown seed is best but is not always available, especially if access to local knowledge is limited. In 2007 I connected with Seed Programs International that reprocesses vegetable seeds for global mission support. Over the past 12 years I have distributed 5400 packets of vegetable seeds to Honduras, Tanzania, and now Rwanda.
For the Rwanda trip [we worked with] 100 packets each of Cabbage, Carrot, Chinese Cabbage, Lettuce, Yellow and White Onion, Bell Pepper, Hot Pepper, Radish, Spinach, Swiss Chard, Tomatoes, and white and orange marigold flowers for a beautification project along the new airport road.
During the 2019 Rwanda mission trip, I was able to conduct four separate training projects. … The first seminar included basic nutrition training, diversity chart, brief example of the destruction from tuta absoluta to tomatoes, and examples of vegetable seed packets (SPI) that will be available to villagers. Normal planting timing cycles with the wet season that begins in early September. Pastor Alexis invited the local province administrators to the seminar.
On the following Sunday morning after joining the village of Nyamata for church service, the village broke into two groups. The first group joined me for a demonstration of planting a small family garden. Garden preparation including digging out a foot of soil, fracturing the second foot for easier root penetration, then mixed compost/cow manure into the top foot of soil and replaced it. The purpose was to create a slightly raised bed, compost as fertilizer, and create an area wide enough to reach for planting, weeding, and harvest without any physical traffic. By eliminating traffic there is limited compaction so the garden bed can be used for continued cycles without heavy tillage. The young lady was the caretaker of the garden although all the surrounding people participated in the training. We planted 4 different vegetables on that day to use as education on diversity and spreading out crop risks.
Only a few packets of seeds were distributed as examples and training materials. During the following months till September Pastor John will be distributing the remaining seed packets as he uses the laminated training materials provided to continue and reinforce the process. I have received a photo from the garden planted in Nyamata with several vegetable plants growing. The plants were thinned due to local goats having a lunch break before a makeshift fence was constructed. Mission work is a process, not an end all.
Bob’s final sentence says it all — this work is a process, not an end. The commitment required to establish or grow a community’s expertise is great, and it cannot be made by our partners alone. As Bob shows, collaborating with local leaders and eliciting a community’s buy-in is critical. We hope his report has given you a good picture of what a local context looks like.
We’re grateful to Bob for his work, and we are grateful to you for your support of SPI. From all of us, and for Bob and all those who gained access to training and seeds because of this project, thank you.
— Sweet Blossom Gifts and the SPI Team
Women's empowerment initiative 