\u201cEvery single day,\u201d he says, \u201cI have to do this. It\u2019s no joke. I spend most of the time just imagining how great this project will be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Half Yemeni, half Ukrainian, Richi never imagined his life would take root in Rwanda. Before the war in Ukraine, triggered on February 24, 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion, he was a successful real estate entrepreneur in Kyiv, owner of a caf\u00e9, a beauty salon, and a father to twins born just months before the fighting erupted.<\/p>\n
Since then, fighting and airstrikes have caused more than 40,000 civilian casualties, while 3.7 million people have been internally displaced, and a further 6.9 million have fled Ukraine, creating one of the world\u2019s largest humanitarian crises.<\/p>\n
On the day the war began, he was in Poland. His family soon joined him. They drove west to Spain, spent nearly two years there, tried Germany, where his wife has family roots, and visited Portugal. But Europe, for all its comfort, felt temporary. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure where my life was leading,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI never thought I\u2019d find happiness again. I never thought that this would be in Rwanda.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then a friend who lived in Kigali suggested, \u201cJust come. Visit without your family. See if it\u2019s for you.\u201d Richi bought a ticket and arrived for a 10-day scouting trip. The moment he stepped out of Kigali International Airport, he knew. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe streets were so clean. Everything was so simple, so beautiful, so organized,\u201d he says.
\n\u201cThen I learned about more rapid development, huge opportunities in the service sector, and everyone said it was safe. I\u2019m not here to find a job. I\u2019m here to start a business. It was clean, safe, simple, far from Europe\u2019s problems. It felt like destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richi soon discovered that Rwanda is not only welcoming to foreigners but is also engineered for their success. \u201cNot only the government, but the people, business partners, other owners, everyone wants to do better business,\u201d he says. \u201cIn Europe and Ukraine, you\u2019re more on your own. Here, everybody is open.\u201d <\/p>\n
That openness led him to William Shaka, a local landowner who had nurtured a farm in Bugesera for 15 years with a quiet dream to one day transform it into something more than agriculture. <\/p>\n
Richi and his wife, passionate about eco-tourism, real estate, and marketing, saw the same vision. \u201cWe met,\u201d Richi says, \u201cand it was destiny again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their first test? A mango festival. Over 1,100 people showed up. \u201cIt was crazy,\u201d Richi laughs. \u201cWe realised there is demand for farm visits in Rwanda. People in Kigali want something new. Bugesera is closer, the roads are better, and it\u2019s fresh.\u201d <\/p>\n
What began as a festival soon blossomed into Eagle View Farm: an agro-tourism project blending working agriculture with guest rooms, a lakeside restaurant, a wellness centre, and a vision of families waking up to pick oranges from trees outside their door. <\/p>\n
\u201cImagine this,\u201d Richi says, standing by a fish pond with orange groves behind it. \u201cYour children wake up and say, \u2018Wow, oranges!\u2019 You tell them, \u2018Go get some.\u2019 They pick them. You wash them, cut them. Just like it was supposed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n