The Millennium Village cluster in Rwanda is located in Mayange, a sector of Bugesera District located about 40 km south of the capital, Kigali. In a country known as the “pays des milles collines” (“land of 1,000 hills”), the terrain around Mayange is flatter and drier than most of Rwanda. The area suffers from sporadic rainfall and declining soil fertility, leading to endemic poverty, illness and a lack of economic opportunity. The project began working with an initial 5,000 people in Kagenge, one of Mayange’s five subdivisions in early 2006. The population was facing impending famine because of failing rains and a poor harvest the year before, and the health center was severely lacking in staff, medicines, equipment and supplies, and had no electricity or running water.

Unlike most of rural Rwanda, where individual homesteads are scattered across the hilly landscape, Mayange has several umudugudus, or settlements, of closely spaced dwellings, which the government built to house returnees after the 1994 genocide. Nearly 14 years after the genocide, Bugesera and Rwanda as a whole are intently focused on rebuilding and reconciliation.

Website address: www.millenniumvillages.org

Physical Address: Mayange Sector, Bugesera District-Eastern Province

Mailing Address: P.o Box 7393kigali Rwanda

Directions to find Country Office: No.2106, Rue du Lac Mpanga, Kiyovu, Kigali

Began work in Rwanda in year: 2006

Organization Leadership:

• Country Director: Donald NDAHIRO
  Cell Phone: (+250) 788306724
• Education Coordinator: John MUGABO
  Cell phone: (+250)788760273

Educational Activities & Districts working in:

• MVP works in Bugesera
• Advocacy
• Teacher training
• Capacity Building
• Access to education
• Girls’ education
• Orphans & vulnerable students
• Leadership/management
• Parenting/community education
• Early childhood education/development
• Adult literacy
• Construction
• Resources & equipment
• Other: ICT & Energy, Schoolfeeding, Environment