Crippled by robbers and abandoned by spouse, VUP beneficiary gets new lease of life

He might be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, but 45-year old Marcel Mushimimana is by no means a charity case.Mushimimana draws his ordeal from a fatal incident that occurred in 2001, when he was attacked by robbers, got shot and was robbed of his belongings.He lives in Karama sector, Kamonyi District.What followed was a period of suffering, as he tried not only to overcome what had happened to him psychologically, but also depleted his savings as he hoped to get back to his feet following the shooting that left him paralysed.All this was in vain, despite spending two years in hospital, because his back bone was ruptured by a bullet during the attack.To add insult to injury, the former businessman was abandoned by his wife. She left four children behind.“My heart was left bleeding when my wife abandoned me because I had become vulnerable,” he said at his home last week.In leaving him, the wife, who has since remarried, sold off a house the family owned in the City of Kigali and vanished with the proceeds.During the aftermath, different well wishers tried to support Mushimimana so that he can get out of his misery; some met the costs for his physiotherapy sessions; others took in his children and paid for their school fees.“Amidst all this, one thing made me through and this is thinking positively; I was determined not to become a beggar even in my state of health,” he said.He is currently a beneficiary of Vision 2020 Umurenge (VUP), a social protection programme spearheaded by the Ministry of Local Government and Social Affairs. New chapter Mushimimana’s plight was brought to the attention of Kamonyi District leaders last year.The leaders realised that he deserved support and, from the onset, they constructed a three-bedroom house for him and brought his children, who were then in different families back home.He was also registered among the 282 beneficiaries of VUP direct support scheme, where he is entitled Rwf 21,000 a month.“VUP gave me the foundation; I want to grab this opportunity to make sure I save some money and restart my business,” he says.Mushimimana, whose first born has completed high school, said he does not currently have money on his Sacco account, because he has invested all in small-scale livestock. He bought five goats, 10 chicken and five rabbits. That was in addition to the cow he received through the ‘one cow per family’ programme. From the money he gets from VUP, he pays labourers on his farm where he grows cassava and pineapple.“My dream is to save money and buy a motorcycle; when I started my business in 1990s, I owned a motorcycle before I graduated to a car… I want to make it again,” he explains.Mushimimana said there is no room for self-pity.“I am now looking to developing myself and family. My wish is to see my children study up to university as a foundation for a bright future.”As for now, he says he is contented with the fact that his children can now have their breakfast, lunch and supper everyday. “We are not the same miserable family we were just two years ago.”The executive secretary of Karama Sector, Francis Sebagabo singled out Mushimimana’s positive thinking and how he has invested the little money he gets through VUP.Now Umurenge Sacco has agreed to give him a loan of Rwf1 million which he is supposed to reimburse within one year.Dreams “All he is supposed to do is design a project proposal showing how he will pay back within the agreed period and he will get it,” said Sebagabo.The former owner of a retail shop in his home area, Mushimimana still dreams about another shop.Kamonyi District has over 2,000 VUP beneficiaries According to the Rwanda Local Development Support Fund (RLDSF), a member of a needy family is entitled Rwf7,500 per month for subsistence allowance.A needy family of two receives Rwf 12,000. Three members receive Rwf15, 000, while four members get Rwf 18,000.Five members and above get a monthly allowance of Rwf21,000,; that is the category in which Mushimimana’s family falls.“In the past, beneficiaries used to misuse this grant, until we advised them to save some of it for income generating activities; Mushimimana took our advice seriously,” said Kamonyi vice mayor in charge of social affairs, Marie-Alice Uwera. “Some of them have now joined cooperatives and they have started businesses.”

National

Crippled by robbers and abandoned by spouse, VUP beneficiary gets new lease of life