
World Humanitarian Day 2020: Paying Tribute to Our Network Member Giving Humanitarian Support to People Affected by Disasters

On this particular Day, Nile Basin Discourse also pays tribute Sustainable Development and Humanitarian Action (SDHA), a Rwanda based member organization involved in Humanitarian action and sustainable development. SDHA is member of Nile Basin Discourse Forum Rwanda and has been supporting communities for 6 years now.
Eng. Jean Pierre HAKIZIMANA, the SDHA’s Legal Representative says that they came together for synergy to contribute to poverty alleviation and humanitarian relief in Rwanda and great lakes region as a whole. SDHA has been supporting community members in making right choices of their development initiatives and action for Humanitarian relief in disasters, refugees and other needy people.
He says that their intervention is driven by a dream of a world in which people have sustainable livelihoods, equity and dignity and that their mission is to support poor communities affected by disasters, refugees and vulnerable groups particularly women and youth.
The organization’s scope and action are built on human centered approach to respond to number of issues faced by communities.
SDHA opted to focus on critical sectors which are Water, Hygiene and Sanitation (WASH), Humanitarian assistance, environment, agriculture and community livelihoods as well as youth and women empowerment.
Eng. Jean Pierre says that they believe that “well-designed interventions remain pointless if not backed by sound approach making it both effective and sustainable and this remains critical for development intervention.”
He says that they aligned their intervention with specific approaches to exemplify community development models that can work in Rwandan context in order to boost the economic change.
How their intervention benefits communities?
Eng. Jean Pierre attributes the success of their intervention to “VITAL”, the motto translated as Village Based Initiative,

He affirms that their accomplishment is linked with their origination’s interlinked principles: Community Participation, self-reliance, action research and capacity building.
According to him, since 2014 to date, SDHA used innovative self- reliance approach to support 7000 beneficiaries whose about three 3000 community members have access clean water and sanitation services.
Moreover, SDHA also brought technical support to small scale farmers, for food security and income generation especially for women and youth cooperatives in different sectors.
Young boys and girls from vulnerable families were assisted to access to basic education in Muhanga District located in Southern Province of Rwanda.
Rwanda recently faced duo crisis which are heavy rains and the covid-19 pandemic. Heavy rains of mid-march to June 2020 claimed dozens of lives and thousands of farms destroyed by floods.
The same period coincided with lockdown imposed by the government in the fight against Corona virus speared. This has affected many in terms of employment.
As the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, Eng. Jean Pierre says that SDHA stretched its Humanitarian support to people affected by disasters, COVID-19 pandemic, and other patients at different health centers. This was done together with creating public awareness on Covid-19, Ebola and climate disasters. To this end they have planted trees on a scale of 32 hectares.
To foster environmental action, tree planting, watershed management and related action research remain our core action.
