Nolan Dean visited us here at the Opportunity Center a few weeks ago and produced this video…

Here’s a recap of what we learned from “Round One”:
• Rwandans are warm, welcoming, joyful, smart and very hardworking people who dream passionately of owning their own home and educating their children… it’s their “Rwandan Dream”
• Rwandans can’t own a quality home with lasting value because there are none available here and even if there were they couldn’t afford them without a mortgage and there are none of those here either
• Rwandans can’t give their children a quality education that prepares them for the future because there are too few schools and too few teachers capable of doing that

As Round One in Rwanda drew to a close, it became abundantly clear that we have two great opportunities to serve the people of Rwanda… Housing and Education

Housing goes WAY beyond helping these great folks have four mud walls with a tin roof over their heads while they cook on a campfire in the front yard and use the bathroom in a hole in the backyard. Housing means a home that allows a family to thrive, not just to survive. Housing means a home that will last for generations so that there can be the transference of wealth that is critical to the future of any economy. It’s this transference of wealth from one generation to the next, through real estate, infrastructure, education, etc., that allows children to have more health, education and opportunity than their parents.

Housing means a mortgage that allows a family to pay for their quality, durable home with an affordable payment plan, and that has the great additional benefit of bringing stability to the family, the community and the economy, as home owners follow through on these long term financial commitments.

Education goes WAY beyond reading, writing and arithmetic. Education means you have not just learned how to memorize, but you have learned how to think so you can solve the varied and complex problems that stand between you and the way forward.

Education means you know how to be a good employee or employer. You know how to be married. You know how to parent. You know how to be a good citizen, properly serving your community. You know how the world really works, what’s really important, what’s temporary and what’s eternal, and you know how to have a living relationship with the Living God. In short… you have wisdom.

Maybe… we could call our efforts “Project W” as the core of what we’re talking about is the transference of Wealth and Wisdom from one generation to the next.

Let’s be clear, these are not our hopes and dreams for Rwanda. These are their hopes and dreams for themselves.

We will not do this for them. They will do this for themselves. Our role is to help where invited and where our help doesn’t hurt.

So… Are you tired of all the talk? Are you ready for some action? …I Sure Am!

Next Up… an outline of a phased ACTION plan for you to review, improve and consider how you might pitch in.

It’s time… It’s definitely time… for Less Talk and More Action!

Most of the homes, new and old, are made of mud in one form or the other. In general, here are the categories of construction technique from lower to higher quality:
(1) Wood lattice covered with mud.
(2) Wood lattice covered with mud and sealed with a very thin layer of Portland cement stucco.
(3) Mud bricks with mud mortar.
(4) Mud bricks with mud mortar and sealed with a very thin layer of Portland cement stucco.
(5) Fired clay bricks with mud mortar.
(6) Fired clay bricks with mud mortar and sealed with a very thin layer of Portland cement stucco.
(7) Fired clay bricks with cement mortar and sealed with a very thin layer of Portland cement stucco.

The vast majority of new construction, and there is a LOT of it going on, is using category (3) Mud bricks with mud mortar. Please keep in mind these homes rarely have running water, electricity or an indoor kitchen or toilet. Cooking on a wood or charcoal fire on the ground right outside your front door and using an outhouse is the norm.

Watch this video to see how mud bricks are made and hear Francis describe the economics of his mud brick business:

To recap the numbers:
(1) A mud brick sells for 27RWF (27 Rwandan Francs is about 5 cents).
(2) The land owner gets paid 5RWF per brick for his dirt.
(3) The brick maker gets paid 8RWF for a dried brick so if he makes 300 good bricks a day, his daily wage is 2,400RWF (about 4 dollars).
(4) If the bricks must be carried the 1 kilometer to the road, an additional 4RWF is paid to the laborer who carries them.
(5) Net profit per brick is 10 to 14RWF.
(6) Francis has 2 brick makers so he can sell 600 bricks per day which gives him a daily net profit of 6,000 to 8,400RWF (10 to 14 dollars).

Here are some brick making photos:

This Pit Supplies the Dirt for Making Mud

Bricks Drying for 3 days

After 3 Days of Drying, the Bricks are Stacked and Ready for Delivery

After only a couple of rains, these bricks are literally melting away (Rain and Mud Bricks Don't Mix)

One of Many Backyard Brick Factories in the Area

Category (1) Wood lattice covered with mud is the most common and most traditional existing construction technique, but you don’t see many new homes being built this way. This technique first builds a frame for the home with a lattice work of tree branches lashed together and then covers them with mud.

Kids and Goats Outside of Their Category 1 Mud Home (category 2 home in the background)

Ronald Loving on the Kids

A Mud Home Deteriorates after a Couple of Years of Rain

A Look Inside the Deteriorating Mud Home (the white thing is the bed)

The people who live here get up early and work honest and VERY HARD 7 days a week.

Category (3) and (4) homes begin with mud bricks and mud mortar. Here are some photos of the process:

This Mud Mortar Is Being Made with Dirt from the Home's Own Floor

Laying Mud Bricks with Mud Mortar

Installing Very Thin Sheet Metal Roofing over Wooden Rafters

About the highest quality construction you will see anywhere around here is category (6) and (7) which both use clay bricks fired in a homemade kiln. These bricks hold up much longer to the rain though the mud mortar does not. If the homeowner has enough money, he will stucco the house with cement to seal it from the deteriorating effects of the weather.

A Home Being Built with Fired Clay Bricks and Mud Mortar

Notice there is very little concrete and no reinforcing steel. When the earthquake hits, this home will, at best, be a pile of rocks, at worst, it will be a tomb.

Rwandans work just as hard to provide a home for their family as anybody I have ever seen, and they spend much more of their income on housing than folks in the US. I have found homeowners who have had to stop sending their kids to school for years because they couldn’t afford both a home and school fees… That means everyone, from the youngest to the oldest, is digging deep and sacrificing to provide the family a home.

Unfortunately, none of these VERY sacrificial housing investments will be transferred down to the next generation. The homes simply won’t last that long so their children and grandchildren will be left to repeat their parents investment.

…THIS IS NO SMALL PROBLEM…
* Rwandans don’t have much income.
* Rwandans pour the bulk of their income into their homes.
* Rwandans either rent or own substandard homes which will not last even one generation.
Therefore, the bulk of Rwanda’s current income will never transfer to the next generation.

And it’s the transference of wealth from one generation to the next, through real estate, infrastructure, education, etc., that allows children to have more health, education and opportunity than their parents.

I see no bigger lever to help Rwanda work its way out of poverty than to help them transfer prosperity to their next generations. We don’t get to encourage them to pour almost all of their hard earned money into their home. They’re already doing that.

What we do get, is the opportunity to help that money bless their children and grandchildren because it’s being invested in something that has generational value.

Even a Mud Home Can Have a Great View in Rwanda

The “Mercy Heart” sees suffering and says, “That is wrong. I love those people. God loves those people. I must do whatever it takes to relieve their suffering RIGHT NOW.”

The “Justice Heart” sees the same suffering and says, “That is wrong. I love those people. God loves those people. I must do whatever it takes to make sure they suffer like that NEVER AGAIN.”

Don’t miss the difference. It’s not subtle, at all. It is profound… “Right Now” or “Never Again.”

And though, at times, every person is capable of expressing both “Hearts,” we overwhelmingly default to one or the other. We can’t help it. It’s the way we were created, and both ways are equally valid and valuable. There is no right or wrong here.

I give this caveat because around the subject of “When Helping Hurts,” relationships can be strained or even lost among equally loving people who have been wired with different “Hearts of Compassion” with which they view those in need.

I want to be clear that having one or the other of these “Hearts” is not a measure of one’s compassion. It is an expression of one’s compassion according to one’s wiring – equal but different. This is an important precursor to the “When Helping Hurts” discussion because without it, we may lose our way in a sea of emotions on our journey to serve.

Because most of the ways we hurt those we long to help are some form of enablement or paternalism, the following must be our “Golden Rule of Helping.”

“Do Not Do Things for People That They Can Do for Themselves.”

Now, those of you with a “Mercy Heart” are saying, “But…”

And those of you with a “Justice Heart” are saying, “Absolutely!”

Neither of you is wrong. That’s why I started this post the way I did. Stick with me.

The key to finding our way forward is in defining three categories of actions that we could take to help those in need – Relief, Rehabilitation and Development.

Relief is an urgent and temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering. This is the Band-Aid that stops the bleeding. Relief is best used in the immediate wake of a natural disaster like a hurricane, tsunami or earthquake or in the wake of a human disaster like war or economic collapse.

Rehabilitation is restoring people to the positive elements of their pre-crisis conditions. This should begin even before the Relief is completed.

Development is the process of ongoing change that eventually allows people to be the solution to their own problems.

When we deploy the wrong category of help for a particular situation we ALWAYS hurt those we are trying to help.

Unfortunately, “Rehabilitation” and/or “Development” are rarely used. The overwhelming tool that gets deployed time and time again to try and help people is “Relief.” Long after “Relief” is required, “Relief” is still given.

The classic example for Americans is our welfare system. Though at times, welfare provides the needed “Relief” it was originally designed to provide, it most often catastrophically hurts those who participate in it because, quite simply, it breaks the “Golden Rule of Helping.” Through enablement and paternalism, welfare does things for people that they could do for themselves… AND IT’S KILLING THEM… one generation at a time.

Let me say it again. When we deploy the wrong category of help for a particular situation we ALWAYS hurt those we are trying to help.

So why is it that we rarely deploy anything but “Relief” to help the materially poor even when “Relief” is rarely needed? Well this gets me back to the earlier discussion of “Mercy Hearts” and “Justice Hearts.”

A “Mercy Heart” is almost perfectly wired to deliver “Relief” because they see suffering and respond with such amazing energy and compassion that incredible amounts of “Relief” are brought to bear on a problem.

A “Justice Heart” is almost perfectly wired to deliver “Development” because they see suffering and want to strategically build the community’s indigenous capacity to solve its own problem.

And when it comes to “Rehabilitation,” both “Mercy Hearts” and “Justice Hearts” can be a great fit depending on the exact scenario.

Unfortunately, often “Mercy Hearts” are so energized by providing “Relief” that they provide it long after it is helpful. And because they were first to arrive and therefore have control of most of the resources, it is very difficult for “Justice Hearts” to get engaged in “Rehabilitation” and/or “Development” when the time is right.

This is why many “Relief” projects end up hurting the very people they set out to help. Haiti is a great example of this. Prior to the recent earthquake, more “Relief” aid per person was going to Haiti than any other place on earth. And this had been going on for decades with little evidence of progress and lots of evidence that it was actually making things worse. Let’s hope this time “Rehabilitation” and “Development” will be appropriately deployed.

As for Rwanda, the country is crying out for “Development.” And because of that they are getting a flood of “Justice Hearts” into the country to join the “Mercy Hearts” that have been here for years doing some great and much needed work.

One of my favorite quotes from Rwanda’s President, Paul Kagame, is, “I can tell you exactly how many billions of dollars the West has given to Africa for poverty “Relief” over the last 40 years. I just can’t tell you any real and lasting difference it has made.”

Musanze Inc is in Rwanda to focus on Development.

Now, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still some very helpful places in Rwanda to provide “Relief” and “Rehabilitation” so there is no shortage of need for both “Mercy Hearts” and “Justice Hearts.” But the people and the government of Rwanda are very determined to be the solution to their own problems, and we are very determined to help them do exactly that.

(Footnote: If you want to learn more, “When Helping Hurts” by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett is an excellent resource. They have done a masterful job of pulling together the best thoughts on the subject and presenting them in a very useful format.)

Before arriving in Rwanda, I prayed fervently that God would go before us in helping find a Rwandan assistant that spoke good English and was smart, hardworking and motivated to learn business. I prayed more for this assistant than any other single thing because I knew that without his translating abilities we couldn’t be productive.

And so on May 1st we arrived at the Kigali International Airport where we were met by Bridge2Rwanda’s Country Director, Tom Allen. While we were waiting for our luggage, Tom asked me if I had a plan for how I would communicate with the people of Musanze because so few of them speak English.

I told Tom of my prayers and hopes for God to help me find an assistant. Tom burst into a big smile as he began to tell me of a young man who lived in Musanze that had recently become a friend to the Bridge2Rwanda staff. His name was Ronald, and as his story and the fact that he needed a job unfolded before me, I couldn’t help but smile a big smile of my own and look up and say to God, “Really? Really? You’re really going to make it that easy?” What a powerful thing it is when God goes before you.

Let me tell you some of Ronald’s story…

Ronald was born on June 1, 1989 in Uganda where his parents lived as refugees from the Rwandan genocide. He has an older brother, Egide, and two younger sisters, Patience and Gloria.

When Ronald was 13, Egide was 16, Patience was 8 and Gloria was not yet 1, their mother died of a terrible disease. Within 3 months, their father was also dead from the same disease.

So what does a 13 year old orphan boy do?

Because Egide was doing VERY well in school, Ronald decided to drop out of school and go to work to support his entire family so his big brother and oldest sister could remain in school … … … WOW!

Egide is now 23, Ronald is 21, Patience is 14 and Gloria is 6.

Egide did so well in school that he was chosen as one of the Rwandan Presidential Scholars last year and is now studying Physics and Math at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He has just finished his freshman year. Being chosen for this program is the Rwandan equivalent of being a Rhodes Scholar… very, very impressive.

Patience and Gloria are enrolled in the SonRise School here in Musanze which was established by Bishop John to provide the best education in all of Rwanda to primarily orphans that others said couldn’t be educated.

Since its beginning, the SonRise kids have repeatedly ranked at the very top of all Rwandan students on their annual national performance exams. They continue to perform so well that other Rwandan schools regularly come to study their methods.

So what about Ronald? Well, I’m still getting to know him, but I can tell you what you have probably already figured out from his story… Ronald is an extremely impressive young man that I am proud to have on our team.

Before I met him, everyone at Bridge2Rwanda told me that he had a deep desire to start his own business. The entrepreneurial passion, that I know so well, gushes out of him. I look forward to honing his business mind and skills as we work together.

This is clearly a match made in heaven.

Ronald recently decided that he will make Musanze his family’s home. Since his parents died, there has been a lot of wandering and no place to call home. He told me, “A family should have a place that they call home and a community that is their hometown. I will work to provide that for my family here in Musanze.”

… i am humbled to be leading such a man …

On a recent visit to a local furniture factory, Ronald was very interested in the beds they were making. He found out exactly what three basic, small, wooden beds would cost and wrote it down. Later, he told me that he was looking for a house to rent so that he and his sisters would have a place of their own.

Ronald lives in a very small place with two roommates, so when the girls are out of school they have no place to stay. Ronald works hard to find local families that will take them in during those times for a fee. It’s easy to tell that this a great concern to him.

He longs to rent a house of his own and save his money to buy those beds for his sisters. He told me, “My sisters have never had a bed of their own. I will work to provide that for them.”

… i am humbled again …

What was I focused on at 21? That’s easy… ME! … I still fight that battle every day.

And so it is, I have so much to teach Ronald about business, and he has so much to teach me about life.

I brought over a small laptop computer with an English learning program called “Rosetta Stone” installed on it. Ronald has quickly mastered the program, and I now have him using it every day to teach the rest of our staff English.

English is now the official language of Rwanda, and their President, Paul Kagame, has asked every Rwandan to serve their country by working hard to learn English.

One of Musanze Inc’s first challenges is to build a highly trained and productive staff so having Ronald teaching them English is a big step in the right direction.

I am also having Ronald further his own formal education, which has been long interrupted because of his commitment to his family. Ronald will study this summer and fall and sit for the Rwandan equivalent of his GED exam in November.

I’m sure you’ll get to know Ronald more in future posts, but know this, while Ronald’s story is as inspiring as it is unimaginable, it’s not unique. I’m in a country surrounded by heroes like Ronald, and it inspires me every day to pursue with all my might the vision God has given Musanze Inc… a vision to help Rwandans build their own way forward.

If you’re interested in some humorous details from my wife’s perspective about our life here, please check out Cheryl’s BLOG at http://ccrainey.blogspot.com. She will make you both laugh and cry.

I wanted to begin my blogging with a brief explanation of why we are so passionate about Musanze Inc’s tagline – “Confronting Poverty with Opportunity.”

Before you begin to help the materially poor who live in chronic poverty, you must first decide what you are going to help them do and how are you going to help them do it. I know that seems painfully obvious, but it is a critical first step that many forgo. Just jumping in and helping anywhere you see a need can actually do more harm than good. (More about “When Helping Hurts” in a future post.)

For us, it is about helping those in need become the solution to their own problems. It is not for us to decide what their future should be. That is for them to decide. It is not for us to do things for them or do things to them. It is for us to listen and learn as they express their “Hoped for Future.” It is for us to come alongside their “Present Reality” helping them develop their indigenous capacity to be the solution to their own problems.

Yes, they have an incredibly difficult “Present Reality,” one that is almost unimaginable for someone living in the developed world, but they also have an equally incredible “Hoped for Future” – one that would inspire even the most cynical of observers. They hope for a community that provides for its own needs. They hope for a community that allows its citizens to unleash their full potential. They hope for a community that is free, just and prospering from the fruit of its own labors.

So how then do we help?

There are three categories of needs that the materially poor have. The first category is Health – things like food, water, medical, shelter, clothing and sanitation that allow every citizen’s body to be developed to its fullest.

The second category is Education – things like reading, writing, arithmetic, science, professional skills and trade skills that allow every citizen’s mind to be developed to its fullest.

And the third category? … What do you do with a sound mind and a sound body that builds a successful community? A sound body alone allows you only to exist. A sound mind alone allows you only to think. It is the third category that allows you to achieve your “Hoped for Future.”

The third category is Opportunity. Without opportunity there is no positive way forward. No sustainable future. No possibility for you to be the solution to your own problems.

I am in no way demeaning a sound mind and a sound body. On the contrary, those are absolute necessities to be able to take advantage of opportunities, but if the help stops at health and education then, believe it or not, that help may actually make things worse. Let me explain:

If you have helped a chronically poor community to be healthier, then you will have directly increased the population of that community at a rapidly expanding rate because if less are dying and lives are longer then more and more people are alive to tax the community’s resources. Without a corresponding increase in opportunity, how can that community provide for itself? It can’t, so it’s only option is to hold out its hand and beg for the help it needs to provide for its increasing population.

In a similar way, it’s possible to harm a chronically poor community if all you do is educate its people. This phenomenon is known as “The Brain Drain” because, once educated, the “Best and Brightest” leave their chronically poor communities at a staggering rate. They leave to find a better life. Why do they leave? Because they can! Most of us would too.

A small percentage will stay out of loyalty, duty and commitment but because there are so few of them, they are, in reality, just “taking one for the team.”

A small percentage will stay and use there “Best and Brightest” gifting in a predatory manner. They take advantage of their less able neighbors to make their own life better with no attempt to relieve the suffering of their neighbors. Their influence and success is directly dependent on the suffering of their neighbors so they have no interest in relieving it.

Having your “Best and Brightest” uneducated, around and helping is better than having them educated and gone. Even uneducated, they are a big asset to any community.

So what’s the answer? How does a community increase its indigenous capacity even as its population increases? How does a community keep the majority of its “Best and Brightest” around even after they are educated?

… Opportunity …

Without opportunity, a community has no ability to self-determine its future and bring that vision into reality under their own energies and abilities. How could they?

Opportunity is how a community meets the needs of a growing population.

Opportunity is how a community retains its “Best and Brightest.”

Opportunity is how Musanze Inc will endeavor to confront poverty.

Stay tuned for details…

Caveat: You may have asked, “What about their spiritual needs?” Great Question! I’ll explain more fully later, but for now, let me be crystal clear. Without a proper understanding of the ultimate authority in the universe and what that authority is calling them to achieve, no community can thrive. And without a personal relationship with the Living God, no person can thrive. Helping people have worldly success without helping them have a right relationship with God is little help in the eyes of eternity.

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