Today is a very special day for all of Rwanda. Umuganda means ‘coming together with a common purpose to achieve an outcome’ and takes place in cities, towns, communities, and villages throughout the country. Everyone aged 16 to 65 must participate otherwise they may actually be fined. What we found out though is that the majority of the population looks forward to participating and they see the practical value of Umuganda.

Umuganda takes place the last Saturday of every month from 8:00am until 11:00am. It has been around in some form since the 1800’s, however, it really took off after the genocide. In 1998, the government started introducing Umuganda again to help rebuild the country and create a sense of unity among the people. In 2009, Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, made this the mandatory practice seen today.

In towns and cities projects can include cleaning streets, cutting grass and trimming bushes along roads, or even repairing public facilities. In the smaller villages the locals come together to repair roads, build houses for vulnerable persons or clean wells. People with particular skills will often offer their services for free on this day, such as doctors giving free medical exams. Projects are decided by the community in order of importance and need.

The village we were in, Colline Ryandinzi, chose this Saturday to repair their main road. Foreigners and tourists alike are not only welcome to join in the efforts, but are actively encouraged. We were excited to help, even though it would likely mean slowing them down. We showed up on time and were met with dozens of villagers already hard at work. Everybody brought their hoes, shovels, picks, anything they had that might help. Mothers were hard at work with babies on their backs, teenagers were busy digging in the ditches, even the elders were hard at work moving piles of dirt over to the holes in the road.

We will work for two hours and whatever we get done in that time, is what gets done. With over 100 people working, we made visible, quantifiable and much needed improvements to a very long section of the road. We would dig up overgrowth from the ditches and pile it into the holes and crevices in the road. Dirt roads after the rainy season are horribly eroded and unstable. We worked hard to make them whole again.

During this time, we laughed and joked as much as we could with the locals. At one point we even taught them how to do the chicken dance. Truth be told, we were looking for a break and would have felt bad just standing there, so instead we took a ‘fun’ break. It was such a lovely thing to share this with them all. Everybody was there to work and make progress, but they were also there to strengthen their bonds as a community. It was a social event as much as it was a work event.

This whole morning was such an overwhelming honour. To be welcomed into the village like that and included in their customs was such a treat. Umuganda was revitalized out of necessity, but I believe it continues so successfully because of all the unseen benefits that have come from communities working together as one.

How can we bring this amazing custom back home?