Abayisenga Nicodeme, a 58-year-old man living in Rubavu district, Nyundo Sector, Kigarama Cell, Kazebe Village, bought five Ares (0.05 hectares) of land on a high slop hill that he could not exploit. “When I bought the land, I ignored that the erosion would come and take away my crops,” he regretted. Abayisenga added that this situation was worsening year after year until, one rainy morning in May 2022, his field experienced landslides. “I decided to abandon my field for good until I joined Tubungabunge Sebeya saving group and got a CECF grant through SACCO Nyundo under the EWMR Project,” he expressed.
When Abayisenga learned that CECF’s mandate was to help community members sustain conservation interventions established by the EWMR project or to initiate new conservation projects, he started to think about how to get a loan from CECF and protect his land. Then, through his savings group, Abayisenga applied for a loan of 120,000Rwf in SACCO Nyundo. “My project was to plant Eucalyptus gunnii Azura Tree on my abandoned land. I did it, and my trees are growing well”, he mentioned and added that his land would never face landslides anymore.
Concerning the reimbursement of the loan, Abayisenga said that he is using the money he gets from his tea plantation and maize harvest, and he plans to finish repaying the loan in 2024.