Shecuddles a hen as if it were a child. She tenderly examines the injuries around the hen’s eyes and neck before setting it free. The way she conducts the checkup reminds one of a dedicated vet.

This is the sight that met my eyes when I visited Marie Viene Karigirwa‘s farm in Kabacuzi village, Nyamugari cell, Gasaka sector in Nyamagabe District recently.

Karigirwa, one of the model farmers in Gasaka sector, can be termed as a survivor because she survived a life-threatening accident, and fought all the way up from biting poverty to a self-reliant and inspirational business woman in her community.

Cautious farmer

As I enter Karigirwa’s farm, the neatness in her compound is evident. Besides the modern family house, the compound hosts a chicken house made of unburned bricks. No litter in sight, and everything seems to have been arranged meticulously.

To avoid infections, one must step in a trough full of disinfectants before going to her poultry farm.

"Everyone must step in the disinfectant before they enter the chicken house to protect the chicken from diseases,’’ she explains. 

Inside one of the chicken houses, you are hit by a wave of heat from a huge charcoal stove placed in the centre of the room. Karigirwa explains that the stove burns 24/seven to provide warmth for the over 600 two week-old chicks.

She says the other rooms house other birds at different stages of growth.

The day Business Times visited, she had over 1,000 birds in total at different levels of growth. The enterprising farmer also rears pigs. "My dream is to have at least 5,000 chicken and 50 pigs. I’m optimistic that I will achieve this soon, judging from the constant growth of my business,” she says.

Karigirwa’s life was, however, never like this; she lacked most of the basic needs of life as she was growing up.

Born into a humble family 50 years ago, the model farmer was forced to drop out of school after completing Primary Six because her parents could not afford tuition fees. 

Starting out

Karigirwa’s journey began when local leaders identified her among the most vulnerable people in her village to be supported by World Vision. As a result, two of her children Carine Ishimwe and Jean Marie Mugisha were registered under the organisation’s sponsorship programme.

"This reduced the burden of school fees and other scholastic material for my children. So I decided to start a small-scale business to improve our standards of living,” she says.

Luck was still on her side as Karigirwa’s family was also selected by local leaders to benefit from the Girinka programme and was given a cow. She says the cow gave birth a few months later.

"I was happy...this meant that I would get milk for the family and also sell some to our neighbours,” she recalls.

"I saved money from milk sales as I was planning to kick-start my small business.”

Karigirwa says after months of saving, she accumulated Rwf150,000 savings, which she used to start a poultry business. This was enough to buy 100 chicks.

"From then onwards, I started looking at life differently because, in addition to selling milk, I would sell eggs,” she says.

She says Agrotech Sarl, a private company in Kigali, helped her secure the first batch of layer chicks in 2006.

She says World Vision trained her in poultry keeping and took her on study tours of the already established poultry farmers.

"I was impressed by the success of the farmers, which inspired me to continue buying more chicks until they were 500 in total,” she adds.

The organisation also gave her 1,000 chicks to support her project.  It wasn’t long before the chicken started laying eggs.

"It was amazing. I started enjoying the fruits of my labour...I knew I had made the right decision. My children, who had previously suffered from malnutrition, could now eat eggs and get healthier. I sold eggs and got enough money to buy food, children’s clothes and basic necessities that were previously out of our reach,” she says.

Karigirwa adds that she could cater for all her family’s needs with ease. Her success in poultry farming inspired many women in her community to start up income-generating projects, she points out.

Diversifying

Karigirwa says currently she imports chicks and sells them to other people who want to start poultry farming. She says many residents are impressed by my farm and want to join the same line of business. 

"However, it was difficult for them to get chicks, so I decided to stop rearing layers and started importing high quality chicks from Germany. When they arrive I rear them for three weeks and then sell to residents. The demand is high and I get good money out of the business,” she says. She says the interest is also driven by the high demand for eggs.

"I buy each chick at Rwf1,090 and sell it at Rwf2,200,” she says, adding that she currently supplies 20 poultry farmers in her locality. 

Karigirwa says she looks after the chicks for two months and after sells them to other farmers. Karigirwa says she earns at least Rwf400,000 monthly from selling chicks.

Benefits

Karigirwa says all her children are in good schools. Her fist-born, Laysee Iradukunda, is a mechanical engineering student at the University of Rwanda’s College of Science and Technology. She also has piggery farm with nine pigs, and also grows tomatoes from which she earns Rwf20,000 a month.

Advice

Karigirwa urges women to be hard working and never to let failures stop them from achieving their dreams. "Winners never give up; keep trying and you will succeed,” she says.

What others say

Bernette Mukakamali is one of the many women who were inspired by Karigirwa to start income-generating ventures. She says Karigirwa’s dedication and fighting spirit, as well as innovative approaches to doing business is a source of inspiration for many women in Nyamagabe.

Ananias Sentozi, the World Vision Rwanda south zone manager, says the organisation supported Karigirwa because they saw huge potential in her. "We wanted her to be a model farmer whose work would impact and inspire others. We also wanted her to graduate into an independent and self-sustaining member of the community after we stop supporting her family directly,” Sentozi says.