Poverty

Rwanda is a land of many contrasts, it is smaller than Scotland and however the variety of landscapes competes with any bigger country. The mountains of the west, the rolling hills of the centre, the savannah of the east… Likewise, it is one of the smallest countries in Africa, but has ten million people living there, the density of population being among the highest on the continent.

Another contrast is the one witnessed between the abundance society found in towns and the poorness often witnessed in the countryside or the poorer parts of cities. We’re used in modern society to seeing poverty as mostly being people who have less or not enough to go by on a monthly basis, but can still get enough or almost enough to live.

When I arrived in Kigali I didn’t realise immediately what the situation was. Quite a few cars going around, people well dressed, and somewhat expensive restaurants sprinkled all over the city. It is only a few days or weeks into my stay, after travelling across the country, seeing more of the town, that I really started understanding what the situation was.

If I recall correctly, more than 60% of Rwandans live below the poverty line and a 42% live in absolute poverty. For most of us, that’s just numbers. And not very explicit ones. To give more meaning to them consider this. The price of a restaurant for two in Kigali, not necessarily one of the best, can represent up to a fifth of someone’s salary. If you take the equivalent in France, let’s say that would be a restaurant around 30 euros, so the salary would be around 150 euros a month. And keep in mind that’s for people who have a regular job, which would be paid the minimum wage in France.

In Rwanda, the 10 richest percent of the population hold approximately 50% of the wealth, and another 50% of the population only hold 10%. Outside the capital it is on a regular basis that you see children wearing torn clothes, or only worn trousers, walking bear foot… It is just so difficult to convey what I want to say by words, so I took a few pictures to illustrate this article.

And you know what? The most disconcerting and the most moving about all this, is that the children keep on laughing…