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Transforming Garbage into Power in Rwanda

by Mussolini Kithome

Development associations in Kigali, Rwanda, are transforming their communities by integrating the best in traditional wisdom and practices with cutting-edge solid waste management and biomass processing technologies. These groups, often run by women, manage the community’s household garbage by converting it into fuel biomass briquettes for household use and compost organic fertilizer useful in crop production. The SAM Muhima community-based organization enterprise is one such group.

	People collecting garbage for processing
Séraphine Hagenimana, a primary-school dropout, founded the SAM Muhima Women Group as a convenient forum to share her frustrations with other widows like her, left suffering by the 1994 genocide. Like many others, she lost her husband and several of her relatives during the genocide. She had no source of income and could not afford basic school requirements for her five young children.
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