Author: IGIHE

The average price is now at Rwf2,500 per kilogram. Government will start construction of a silk processing firm in Kigali Special Economic Zone this November. Government and Korean firm, HEworks Rwanda Silk, are giving incentives to sericulture farmers, giving the sectorguarantee for a reliable market that relieves farmers from the previous losses which saw mulberry trees, food for silkworm, grow into bushes around the country as the owners abandoned silkworm rearing.

Jean Pierre Bicamumpaka, coordinator of the 17-member Umuseke Cooperative, says they were discouraged from selling cocoons to UTEXRWA, Rwanda’s textile firm, which used to delay payments for six months. The new investor, HEworks Rwanda Silk, is paying them within a maximum of seven days from the day of supply.

“We have recently bought a land at Rwf1,150,000 with the support of Rwf850,000 from our district for planting more mulberry trees to enable us increase cocoon production to at least 250 kilograms per monthly cycle. We can produce cocoons six to eight cycles per year,” he told IGIHE from exhibition in Kayonza, last month.

“This business is turning into a goldmine; we are seeing a lot of benefits, easy to do and do it while doing other activities at the same time. In the next five years, we target to have huge production and machines to dry up the cocoons and sell at higher prices.”

Bicamumpaka said the investor is soon awarding farmers with contracts which can help them access the financing from financial institutions.

{{Potentials in sericulture}}

Sericulture is an agro-based sector involving rearing silkworms to produce cocoons and raw silk by reeling cocoons. Amid the developed countries’ rapid industrialisation, sericulture presents good opportunities for developing countries to produce raw material for the manufacturers in developed countries, according to Jean Marie Vianney Munyaneza, the manager for Diversification and Products Development at National Agricultural Exports Development Board (NAEB).

“Now a kilogram of silk yarn is at $70 up from $30 five years ago when China had good production of silk. So, we have a good market but as we focus on promoting Made in Rwanda products, this silk will also be important to support our local textile in the coming years,” he said.

To maximise the benefits, Munyaneza says the Government decided to build a silk firm worth Rwf1.5 billion and all is set to start construction by November to see it operational by next year with the high technology machinery by mainly the government and some by HEworks Rwanda Silk.

The firm will have the capacity of producing 100 tonnes of raw silk (silk yarn) annually. While only 10 tonnes of dry cocoons were recorded in 2016, production is expected to increase to around 35 tonnes by 2017 due to many efforts by the Government, farmers and HEworks Rwanda Silk, according to Munyaneza.

“We are targeting to produce 300 tonnes of dry cocoons annually from 2020. These tonnes will need good farmers and firms. We have an agreement with HEworks Rwanda Silk that will build another firm in Rwamagana District as the production increases. When we hit 300 tonnes target, we shall upgrade the Government’s firm to manufacture silk clothes starting from ties and scarves and leave cocoon reeling activities to Korean firm,” he says.

Munyaneza urged farmers to take advantage of the government’s current incentives in sericulture including free mulberry cuttings for planting, roofing materials for silkworm rearing houses, silkworm eggs, training of farmers and investor’s offer of Rwf15 per every mulberry tree that a farmer grows.

{{Rwanda’s silk among top quality}}

Dr Keewook Sohn, Managing Director for HEworks Rwanda Silk Ltd, says that Rwanda has favourable natural conditions such as temperature and rainfall that allow six to eight cycles of cocoon production per year while most countries never go beyond three cycles.

“We sent Rwanda’s silk to China to test the quality last year and was found to be of very high quality. Cocoon’s quality is ranked in the way 6A is the highest but is rare to find, then 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A, 1A to B, C, D… From 3A and above, the quality is high. Rwanda’s silk was ranked at 4A which is high quality,” he says.

Dr Sohn says to produce the highest quality does not only base on good silkworm rearing but also on technology of cocoon drying and reeling machines, adding that his company is going to bring the top quality machines and top quality technicians to produce the highest quality of raw silk from next year.

He says they target to reach 1,000 hectares of mulberry plantation by 2018 from the current 260 hectares around the country. The total income from one hectare’s minimum 750kg cocoon production stands at Rwf1,650,000 but is expected to keep increasing regularly to reach Rwf3 million by October 2022.

There are at least 3,200 farmers in 40 cooperatives practicing sericulture around the country and the number is quickly increasing due to the sector’s increasing benefits as cocoon prices have almost doubled from Rwf1,350 to Rwf2,500 per kilogram in the last three years.

She is caught in limbo; in the middle of nowhere. Her future remains uncertain. She was born out of the 1994 Genocide rape that left her mother infected with HIV to which she succumbed four years later.

Agnes (not her real name) was luckily born HIV-free and breastfed by maternal aunt whom she knew was her mother and knew aunt’s husband as her father.

Over 100 days, the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi claimed over one million lives and assailants raped an estimated 250,000 women which, according to one charity’s count, produced up to 20,000 babies. Agnes is among the births of the horrific circumstances that took a toll on her being.

IGIHE visited Agnes in Kamonyi District where she lives with her aunt’s married daughter since 2015 but she will have to wait for the absence of her home mates or find a place away from home to gain some comfort for recounting her story to the media.

Agnes, now 22, learnt of her birth circumstance from aunt when she was in primary five, following the order by a teacher for all students to cite names of their parents.

“My mother and I lived together at my aunt’s but I thought of my aunt to be my mother until the real mother died when I was four years old. They told me my mother had died but I didn’t consider it much. I started hearing people saying that I am an orphan and got confused because I had never heard of my father’s death,” she said, adding that her aunt shed tears instead of replying when Agnes asked for clarification.

I insisted asking, “Aren’t you my mother?” Aunt later answered, “Don’t you remember the time your mother died? I am not your mother and I only heard of your father’s name but he died in Congo (DRC).”

{{Essence of trauma, school drop out}}

Agnes kept asking many questions to her aunt who finally revealed all about Agnes’s birth circumstances.

“I wished to visit the area of my father’s origin to check for any relative there and aunt took me there after days of argument because she hesitated to take me there. We got to my paternal uncle who scorned us with abuses and said I was going to claim land from my father. He told us to visit him again later for a talk. The next time I went there with my maternal uncle, he took a machete and chased us. We run away and I never wished to see him anymore since 2012,” Agnes narrates as she tears up.

The uncle threatened to kill Agnes and make her follow her deceased mother and uttered a lot more scorns that she is a bastard that should be sent back to the street where she was picked.

“Since then, I felt traumatized, hated life and school. I stopped going to school, wondering about my future without family. Aunt insisted that I go to school but I could often sit on the way and go back home without reaching the school. I was demoted from primary five to three but still kept scoring as poorly as 20% or below yet I used to score above 50% before learning of my birth,” she said.

She finally dropped out from senior one which she had joined after extreme failure, featuring in U (unclassified) category at the end of primary six.

“Then SURF (NGO) found me and paid for my courses on hairdressing in Kigali for one year in 2015. I have not got job since the courses completion and my life is a misery. When I lack anything among life needs, I sit down and weep recalling of my history and worry of my future without family. I wish I get support for opening a hairdressing shop,” pleads Agnes.

Agnes adds, “I never wish to see anyone of my father’s family since my uncle chased me with machete while I tried to meet them with love. I didn’t even know my father’s name and never wish to know it. I only know the family of my mother.”

{{Government pledges support}}

Minister of State in charge of Social Affairs and Social Protection at the Ministry of Local Government, Dr Alvera Mukabaramba, says the amendment of the law instituting the Fund for Neediest Survivors of Genocide (FARG) considered mothers of children born of Genocide rape in particular and pledged her personal follow up with Kamonyi District’s officials to help Agnes.

“FARG law considers their mothers because children are not counted among Genocide survivors. We are amending the law instituting FARG in which we stated that their mothers shall be supported in a special way to enable them support their children too,” she said.

Dr Mukabaramba said the ministry has always tasked districts to consider children like Agnes in particular ways using social protection schemes but some children remain unknown to authorities because their mothers succumbed to stigma that made them fail to speak out their Genocide ordeal.

“We encourage local leaders to know such children and offer particular support. We need to know that young girl and help her in particular. We shall follow up with local leaders to ensure she gets support. That is one you found but there might be others with similar problems in the country. Let me have her name and address! They might be lost among others in the society but if we find a particular case, we do help them,” said the minister.

She reminded that those born out of Genocide rape are not longer children but young adults who need support for development projects because some have completed good education, others schooling still while others did not get good education.

Emilienne Kambibi, a counsellor who works with SURF and Foundation Rwanda said they have supported 830 children born of Genocide rape and most of them have now completed secondary school. Among them, 27 got early pregnancies including some who got defiled by their mothers’ husbands. With some, after learning that their wives were raped in Genocide and never revealed to the husbands, they revenged by raping the daughters. Some others completely failed at school and dropped out but the charity helps them acquire vocational and technical training.