Last week a crew of ONE staff and American leaders took a trip to Rwanda to see effective-U.S. aid at work. I just got in this clip of former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Center for the American Progress President John Podesta talking about their visit to a specialty-coffee-washing station just outside of Kigali.
Senator Bill Frist, MD:
“We’re at a specialty-coffee-washing station in Rwanda, Kigali,- just outside of Kigali, Rwanda. Why is it important? It is because of economic development. In a country that is mainly plagued by poverty, what you see behind me, the employment of over 200 women, women who double their income by working at this specialty-coffee-washing station will now have that opportunity to put their kids in school, to put a roof over their head, to empower their family to earn an income in the future that indeed can capture their dreams and translate their hopes and dreams into a reality.”
John Podesta:
“Rwanda has a “Rwanda 2020 Plan” to try to really make sure that growth is widespread and that it affects everyone. And you saw a real spirit of entrepreneurship here today. We saw women sorting coffee earning about 50% more than they were earning in their livelihood. Before that we saw a young Rwanda entrepreneur who had built that coffee-washing station. The focus in on specialty coffee. Rwanda has always produced a lot of coffee, but now they’re producing for the high-end, and that’s a team effort, but just there’s just a lot of spirit and optimism about the capacity to get this country really moving again. And get the kids in school. Get the people working. And get some income into people’s pockets.
Our Comms Director Tom Gavin just sent back this final video from the ONE Rwanda trip.
“Our visit wrapped up with a long meeting with Rwandan President Paul Kagame. He talked about his development plan, called Vision 2020, that would result in strong steps forward in education, health, and business growth. At the end, many of our delegation members talked with Rwandan journalists about their meeting and the trip overall. – Tom Gavin”
In the clip:
Democratic strategist John Podesta calls Rwanda’s progress “very, very impressive,” citing the number of people now on ARVs (AIDS treatments), their success in bringing Rwandan citizens into the healthcare system, and the country’s remarkable reduction in child mortality rates.
And Republican strategist Jack Oliver tells the journalist: “We’ve been extraordinarily impressed by the people of Rwanda…[We're] just encouraged, excited and ready to be advocates on behalf of Rwanda.
Senator Frist is sending in daily posts from ONE’s recent trip to Rwanda. Below is the post he wrote about Sunday.
SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST-CATHEDRAL
The drive to Saint John the Baptist-Cathedral in Ruhengeri is about two hours. It is a windy, but beautiful, road. Rwanda is known as the Land of a Thousand Hills, and this journey explains why. The hills are green, and the trees are even a darker green, separated by roughly plowed hillsides; every inch of land is used. It’s lush. The worn, dusty brown walking paths switch back like big “Z’s” painted on the sides of steep, steep hills, climbing to the sky. Every mile seems more picturesque than the previous.
Bishop John gave the service. He recognized all of the visitors and preached about self-sufficiency, entrepreneurship, and service. (more…)
Michael Gerson talks of ONE’s Rwanda trip in an Op-Ed in today’s Post. In the piece, he repeats a truth that we as ONE members have been trying to get out about the immense progress in Rwanda since the 1994 genocide – saying that the country is making some of the most rapid progress in the history of public health.
Cindy McCain’s first visit to this country, in 1994, was during the high season of roadblocks and machetes and shallow graves.
…[Last week, Cindy] McCain joined a bipartisan delegation — including former Senate majority leaders Bill Frist and Tom Daschle — organized by the ONE Campaign, a group that advocates for the fight against global poverty and disease. (I am also involved in the efforts of ONE.)
McCain came back to a very different Rwanda — peaceful, well governed, and making, with American help, some of the most rapid progress in the history of public health. What has struck me, says McCain, is that most people are reconciling. A woman I met was gang-raped [during the genocide], her throat was slit, she lost her whole family, but was willing to forgive. The reason this will be a successful country is the women — some of the strongest, most inspiring women I have ever met.
“And could I also recognize another organization that is very, very popular and a very important one, not only here in New Hampshire but across the country, and that’s an organization called ONE.
This is an organization inspired by a lot of people including Bono and they have over 2 million volunteers in this nation, and they go all over the world, especially Africa, to help cure malaria, AIDS, cholera, and help people. This is one the great examples of what America is all about.
I’m proud that Cindy, and a group, a number of other people, are in Africa as we speak, with the organization called ONE trying to do what we can to help those people and that organization and publicize their great work.
Thank you to the group from ONE, will you guys stand? Thank you very much. Thank you.”
How in the world can you take an economy in which over 50% of the population is under the poverty level, is landlocked, ranks somewhere around 160th out of 180 countries on the “Developmental Scale,” and even think about “making extreme poverty history?” as we in ONE like to say.
Answer: Establish viable, sustainable economic growth based on the resources that you have. And the resources that Rwanda naturally have are agriculture (even though it is the most densely populated country in Africa) and tourism (they showcase the upland or mountain gorilla, the magnificent cousins to the lowland gorillas—those whom I used to take care of in the National Zoo –– but more on that in a couple of days).
First, the ONE delegation went to see a fantastic partnership at a “Coffee Washing Station,” owned by the Alfred Nkubili. Our U.S. government, namely USAID, has partnered with the owner and manager to establish a coffee bean washing station. This station purchases coffee beans (“cherries” actually) from farmers (many peasant farmers) and then they process the bean through a washing cycle that separates the beans by quality. These beans become the specialty coffee beans that are sold to Starbucks and specialty coffee shops across America.
To accommodate the burgeoning specialty coffee market, these washing stations hire about 200 women to separate and process the beans. At these facilities, these women’s salaries are double to what they could make elsewhere. And a doubling of their salary means (more…)
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle talks about the growth of Rwanda’s tourism industry and its inspirational impact on the country’s economy, culture, and citizens’ quality of life.
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