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PROJECT UPDATES
The School
The school at Cyimbili is home to over 1,400 students. Currently the high school has 525 students that live at the plantation with limited facilities.
The Economy
The plantation has just completed Phase 1 of the restoration program. The land has been terraced, nearly 69,000 new plantings, and most important a new coffee washing station has been completed.
The Community
With the work that has been made available the community has begun to be restored. The Cyimbili Women's Organization has formed along with other inner workings of a viable and productive community.
The Church
As part of the community the church provides stability to a community and a place for fellowship and personal restoration.
The Coffee Plantation
Cyimbili was one of the largest coffee plantations in Rwanda. It provided jobs and services for the local community and was a hub of ministry and outreach to thousands of people; however the Rwanda genocide in 1994 changed all that. In the turmoil of those events the plantation was abandoned and production diminished. When our team first arrived at Cyimbili in 2008 we discovered that the plantation was a shell of what it once was. It yielded minimal coffee and had little impact on the hurting and poverty-stricken people around it. There was no clean water, no electricity, a poor sanitation system and a noticeable lack of other basic needs. The community also suffers from HIV infection and other life threatening diseases. The staggering number of orphans & widows living in Rwanda today is also a direct result of the genocide.
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The coffee plantation will be completely restored by planting 100,000 new coffee plants and pruning the 27,000 that already exist. Each tree produces approximately 4.5 pounds of premium coffee beans annually, which has the potential to infuse significant income into the community—as well as provide jobs for many of the local residents in Cyimbili. This will improve their standard of living considerably. The restoration also includes expanding current equipment and capabilities: a coffee washing station, drying and packing facilities, transportation equipment, staffing and training. The growth of the plantation’s economy will inevitably create other markets that will further restore the local economic structure