Growing Sustainable Futures, One Day at a Time

Approx. 7 min read 

By Merci Umutoniwase, Communications Executive, Betel Gezahegn, Content Executive, and Antony Kahaya, Visual Content Manager at Ripple Effect

Each morning starts with a long walk up and down steep hillsides to collect fodder, as the rest of the village begins its morning routines.

By the time she returns home, the morning light has settled over the hills. She chops the fodder and feeds the cow before moving to her kitchen garden to check what is ready, what needs water, and what requires extra care. She grows carrots, cabbage, beetroot, and a variety of other vegetables. For Marie Rose, these are crops she once rarely had access to, now growing right in her home.

Shortly after, she makes her way to a separate plot behind her home, where she grows bananas, beans, coffee, and maize. While the kitchen garden at home provides for daily meals, this plot is an important source of income for the family. This is where she spends part of her day, supervising and supporting the work, sometimes with the help of one or two extra hands. She cannot always afford the support, so she brings them in seasonally, when she can. 

By 11:00 AM, she is back home. She begins preparing lunch, setting the next part of her day into motion. 

There was a time when each day felt uncertain. Marie Rose’s family depended entirely on buying food, yet there was no stable income to rely on. Their land produced very little, and without the knowledge or resources to improve it, they were left vulnerable. 

“We couldn’t even afford to eat twice a day,” she recalls.

Many mornings began with uncertainty about what the family would eat that day. Like many families in Nkakwa village, unpredictable weather, small land sizes, and limited access to farming inputs made it difficult to grow enough food or earn a steady income. Even with hard work, many households relied on a single source of income, or none at all, leaving them vulnerable when crops failed or prices changed. Limited access to knowledge, financial services, and basic resources made it even harder for families, especially women, to improve their situation.

For Marie Rose, that reality began to change when she joined the Kwigira project, implemented by Ripple Effect with support from The Starbucks Foundation. The project supports rural households to strengthen food security, improve incomes, and build resilience.

Through the project, Marie Rose began spending her days differently. She received training in climate-smart agriculture, learning how to improve and protect the soil, diversify crops, and make better use of the land she had. 

What once yielded little began to provide enough to feed her family, bringing more variety to their meals and improving their nutrition and overall well-being. 

Through the project, she also joined a Self-Help Group, where she learned to manage money, save regularly, and access small loans. This financial support enabled her to raise the capital needed to start a small grocery business from her home. 

Today, her business sells dried silverfish, ground nuts, cassava flour, tomatoes, and other seasonal vegetables. This adds to her household income and strengthens her financial independence. The shop is woven into her day, opening only when she or a family member is home. Each day, for a few hours in the late morning, she steps in herself, serving neighbours between the many tasks that fill her schedule.

By midday, her nieces return from school, and she sets aside her work to serve lunch. 

Family meals are now different. There is food on the table grown from their own land. Her family eats together, sharing not just healthier meals, but moments of stability that were once unforeseeable. 

While challenges have not disappeared, Marie Rose is no longer facing them the same way. She is better prepared, more resilient, and more confident in her ability to move forward. 

In the afternoon, Marie Rose joins her Self-Help Group, HANGUMURIMO, where she leads as president. The group brings together 30 ambitious young people who meet to learn, save, support one another, and build stronger, more secure futures free from poverty.  

As their leader, she mentors the group, shares training updates, guides discussions, and ensures everyone is aligned. There is quiet authority in the way she speaks, clear, organised, and encouraging. 

She leads with confidence, and her growth has become a shared journey in the community. Much of her afternoon is spent passing on the skills and knowledge she has gained as a Kwigira project participant. Through her guidance, group members are adopting new farming techniques, improving their gardens, and building their own sources of income. 

Throughout her day, Marie Rose is creating opportunities not only for herself, but for those around her. Through her climate-positive farming and home business, she supports her household and earns an income. She also creates work for others, hiring extra hands on her farm when she can and paying them for their labour. 

As president of the Hangumurimo Self-Help Group, she shares knowledge that helps others grow their own food, strengthen their incomes, and build more stable lives. In doing so, she has become an example of what is possible. Her journey reflects the power of resilience, agency, and coming together to create lasting change. 

The changes seen throughout Marie Rose’s day reflect a much wider shift taking place across Nkakwa and surrounding communities through the Kwigira project. At its heart, the Kwigira project is about changing what each day looks like for families like Marie Rose’s. By combining practical training, access to finance, and community support, it equips women, young people, and entire households with knowledge and skills to produce more, earn more, and adapt to challenges over time. The result is not just improved incomes, but stronger, more self-reliant communities.

Over the past year: 

• 3,896 households have been reached, supporting thousands of people to improve their livelihoods 
• Over 90 percent of women are now involved in household decision-making, compared to just over 60 percent at the start of the project 
• Diet diversity has improved significantly, with more families eating a wider range of food groups 
• Nearly 80 percent of households are engaged in multiple income-generating activities, helping them become more resilient to shocks and seasonal changes 
• Women’s participation in leadership roles has increased, with more women actively guiding groups, savings associations, and community initiatives 

These changes may not happen overnight, but across communities like Nkakwa, they are growing steadily, one household, one group, and one day at a time. 

As evening settles over the hills, Marie Rose returns home. The day has been long and the work heavy, but it feels different now. There is confidence where there was once uncertainty, and her smile comes more freely. The future feels closer, more within reach. And when morning comes, she will rise and begin again.

Her story is about the small, consistent steps that build stronger futures over time. Through support, shared knowledge, and long-term partnerships, families are creating more stable and resilient livelihoods for themselves and their communities. Stories like Marie Rose’s show that lasting change is possible.

Support from people around the world helps more families continue building resilient futures rooted in their own knowledge, skills, and determination.