Woman moved her family from nothing #rwanda

The year is 2005. Like many of her kind, she had
little hope of ever leading a better life. She had
resigned herself to the bad situation. But no, the
situation was too harsh to bear any longer. So,
Annonciate Nyirambonigaba, a resident of
Rugarama sector in Burera District, Northern
Province decided to throw caution to the wind
and defy culture by taking up the mantle of
fending her family.
Nyirambonigaba says when she got married, her
husband was so poor that all he could afford was
a grass-thatched hut and had a very small piece
of land.
"We always dreaded the nights and whenever it
rained, we spent the night standing," she recalls.
"My children always suffered from pneumonia
for a long time as we did not have the money to
take them to the hospital for treatment," she
adds.
"My life was 'full cries'... it was misery itself."
Tired of this misery, Nyirambonigaba, who
dropped out of school in primary five, vowed to
change her situation. She started by engaging in
petty Irish potatoes trade. She adds that after
some time, she started growing the Irish
potatoes on the family's small piece of land.
Starting out:
"I had to wake up and take full advantage of the
big food market. Besides, it was the only
business I had grown up seeing everyone
doing," says the 56-year-old Nyirambonigaba.
Today, besides growing potatoes,
Nyirambonigaba has dairy cows and sells
agricultural inputs such as fertiliser and pesticides
in her locality. This was to the delight of farmers
in the area, who previously had to walk for long
distances to buy the inputs from Burera.
And as they say, hard work pains but pays,
Nyirambonigaba is a successful farmer and
business woman in her own right, thanks to her
perseverance and innovation.
"I used to say that I owe poverty nothing so
there was no reason to continue wallowing in it
fangs. I was confident that I could transform my
life and that of my family. I was committed and
determined to triumph over poverty"
Nyirambonigaba says cheekily.