Girinka Program On Poverty Reduction : A Case Study Of Huye District, Rwanda

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to ascertain the extent to which GIRINKA program is impacting lives of different Rwandans particularly on poverty reduction. In this case, the study has assessed the extent to which GIRINKA is transforming lives of HUYE citizens by reducing its poverty level. To achieve this, the researcher has formulated both general and specific objectives of the study. The general objective pointed out the contribution of GIRINKA on poverty reduction to its beneficiaries and the rest of the community in particular. On the other hand, specific objectives were meant to determine the key causes leading to poverty status for 3, 570 families, and to describe the contribution of 3,570 GIRINKA Program cows distributed in HUYE to reduce poverty from 2008- 2012. This study is indeed very beneficial to different people including the researcher himself and the team of GIRINKA program implementers mainly in furnishing knowledge and recommendations that can be considered in program’s implementation. The study has used a descriptive design to find out GIRINKA impact on poverty reduction primarily for HUYE District. To arrive at this, purposive sampling was applied to select 75 respondents from which only 65 respondents were reached because others were unavailable to be reached as they were missing researcher several appointments. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were exercised to collect primary and secondary data. Primary data was obtained from the use of questionnaires and observation methods while secondary data was collected from the explorations of HUYE GIRINKA reports and brochures. The data collected was tabulated and interpreted in consideration of GIRINKA interventions versus poverty reduction results. The pie charts were applied to analyze and interpret the data from the study. The study results illustrated that causes that lead to poverty in HUYE are composed by scarcity of land, land infertility, illiteracy, large family size, remoteness and unemployment at the rate of 76.9 percent of the research respondents. The study also realized that 92.3 percent of GIRINKA beneficiaries strongly accept the positive relationship between GIRINKA interventions versus poverty reduction whereas 90.8 percent of respondents/beneficiaries strongly acknowledge the contribution of GIRINKA on agricultural production while 70.8 percent strongly agree on the fight of malnutrition of their children. The research found that 49.2 percent strongly agree on the contribution of GIRINKA on family income generation. However, the contribution of GIRINKA to family’s health insurance particularly needs to be addressed as 38.5 percent only are acknowledging the contribution of GIRINKA on payment of their health insurance while the participation of community in the selection of the beneficiaries were evaluated differently; 63.1 percent strongly agree while 36.9 percent do not agree. Therefore, the study has recommended reinforcing follow ups in regard to cows distributed by NGOs as it was noticed that some cows were dead due to lack of follow ups on the part of GIRINKA implementers. It equally also recommended the continuation of cows distribution to reach existing poor families not yet reached.