The Girinka evolution: a programme that has changed thousands of lives in Rwanda

Cows grazing near Nyabarongo River: The Girinka Programme has changed lives of many Rwandans

The one cow per poor family (Girinka program) is a program that aims at enabling every poor household to own and manage an improved dairy cow. The cow in turn helps the beneficiary family to better their livelihood through increased milk and meat production while also improving soil fertility with the available manure.

The programme which was initiated by president Paul Kagame in 2006 was inspired by the Rwandan culture where people used to exchange cow gifts to establish personal and family relationships.

The cabinet meeting of April, 12 2006 approved the program as one of the 2020 vision and EDPRS implementation measures.

Girinka’s primary goal was to improve nutrition in Rwandan rural families, but to also increase the earnings of beneficiaries from milk, milk products, meat as well as from sale of manure.

The one cow per poor family program is implemented in two ways. One is by the Girinka ingabirano (donation). Here, a poor family receives a cow free of charge. When the cow delivers, the calf is given to the neighbour who extends the giving trend to yet another neightbour. This procedure is also known as kuziturirana (credit revolving scheme).

Another way is through giving loans (Girinka inguzanyo). Here, an average family gets a bank loan to buy a cow.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture which runs the programme, it is the responsibility of the average family, to be able to comply with the criteria necessary to receive the cow. For example: being able to construct a cow shed (Kraal), the field planted with different pasture species for nutrition purpose, to mention but a few.

Since the initiative came into force, the program has been a success and has produced other related initiatives. A tangible example is in the Southern Province’s Kamonyi District. The district initiated inka ya akaguru. This process where the first owner remains with the calf and the next beneficiary takes the mother and so on.

This is much faster than kuziturirana mentioned earlier because there is a possibility of getting a new calf every year to the benefit of different households.

Another initiative is Kuragiza, where a cattle owner gives a cow to his neighbour who keeps it for him and when it bares calves twice, the owner gives one calf to the neighbour as recognition for his work.

As the programme gained fame, what started as an idea has been joined by everyone including the country’s business people. In September last year, Kigali business community collected about Rwf300 million and gave it to President Kagame, as their contribution to the one cow per family programme.

Many people in different regions of the country came up with different initiatives to raise funds to support the programme.

So far, the Girinka has seen more than ten thousand cattle distributed while many more are expected to be given out this financial year.