After Graduation: Illuminee’s Story

Illuminee Nyiransabimana is a mother of two and Community Health Worker at Rwaza health clinic located in Musanze District. With her husband and two children, she practices small-scale farming to support the family.

Illuminee first partnered with GHI in 2017, enrolling in the Child Nutrition Program. During her weeks in the program, she learnt how to grow healthy vegetables at home, prepare a balanced meal, and the value of breastfeeding in the first months of a child’s life.

“After participating in GHI’s training, I can now cook and enjoy a balanced meal with my family. I learnt to grow my own vegetable garden of spinach, cabbages, carrots, onions and amaranth. We also practice family planning with my family now. ” says Illuminee..

Iluminee Nsabimana in her vegetable garden

In 2019, as part of GHI’s sustainability efforts, program graduates were invited to join a peer support group in order to maintain healthy habits together. Illuminee was excited to join a group of peers. Together, they put together their savings as a team, supported and learnt from each other, and shared seedlings for their vegetable gardens.

Illuminee has always wanted to expand her financial management skills and share her experience in agriculture and nutrition with her peers in the community. The peer support groups allowed her to do exactly that.

When COVID-19 hit, many of the members of her group lost their jobs during lock-down as a result of the preventive measures that were put in place to curb the spread of the virus. It became hard for them to allocate any money to the savings fund. They instead used their income to provide for their basic needs.

“Being part of GHI’s program helped us a lot. They taught us to make kitchen gardens and that has been our main way of survival. At least we can enjoy vegetables that we have grown ourselves without spending any money.”

Illuminee has a plan for the future and hopes to improve the lives of her family. She also has new ideas for the peer support groups, sharing livestock to improve the members’ vegetable gardens and also planting a wider diversity of seedlings.

Story by Gloria Busingye and photos by Godfrey Gatete