Bridges to Prosperity: Cyamatare
Karongi District, Rwanda
During the rainy season, life can be hard for the Mubuga-Nyarunyinya community who rely on crossing the river to reach an array of critical resources such as schools, health centres and markets. Most people turn back and will not attempt to cross. As a result, children do not attend school and people have no access to healthcare. The result is rural isolation, a root cause of poverty.
In partnership with Bridges to Prosperity and together with workers from the local community, 海角视频 volunteers built a 62-metre suspended bridge that provides a safe and reliable way to traverse the river, linking people to healthcare, government services and education as well as economic and social opportunities.
海角视频 has a rich heritage of encouraging its teams to devote their time and skills to community projects around the world that help lift the equity and aspiration of some of the world鈥檚 poorest populations. We have partnered with the not-for-profit organisation for a number of years and have supported other bridge building missions to Rwanda, the most recent being the Rubete Trail Bridge in 2022 and the Kanyarusanga Bridge in 2023. The Cyamatare Bridge is 海角视频鈥檚 fifth bridge build and the second in the Karongi district.
A team of eight 海角视频 volunteers worked with Bridges to Prosperity staff and the local community to build a transformational suspended bridge.
The new bridge has created a lifeline for approximately 9,000 people who live in the Cyamatare village.
At 62 metres long, the trail bridge spans the Mashyiga river and is the fifth bridge built in partnership with the charity.
The majority of the bridge elements was prefabricated but assembled entirely by hand, with the team working in safety harnesses high above the river.
Challenge
The village of Cyamatare is located in the district of Karongi in western Rwanda near the Mashyiga river and more than three hours from the Rwandan capital Kigali. Due to its rural location and elevation of over 1,500 metres, vital amenities such as hospitals, schools and markets are spread out and people living in this community must walk for hours through rough terrain to get to their destination. They rely on crossing the river safely.
But, come the rainy season, roads become impassable and the Mashyiga swells to dangerous levels, with the fast-moving waters taking away any makeshift wooden bridges and tragically, some lives have been lost while attempting to make the crossing.
Due to the challenging remote location, our eight volunteers, two each from our European offices in Warsaw, Copenhagen, Rotterdam and Berlin, found themselves navigating roads that have become muddy rivers overnight, making driving impossible and walking extremely difficult. Key challenges during the build were coordinating the collective effort of volunteers, coordinating staff and the local labour force as well as limited access to construction machinery. The team also experienced a brief interruption to their work schedule when a temporary bridge used to get to the build site and to carry equipment collapsed due to the raging river.
Solution
The new crossing follows a standardised bridge design by engineers from Bridges to Prosperity, so that building methods, as well as training, safety guidelines and maintenance are replicable in remote communities all over the world. As the local team had already prepared the site and started work on the foundation, our volunteers joined the bridge build at the steel cables and deck construction phase.
They separated into teams with specific tasks while on site, such as surveying, winching, rebar bending, clamping, mixing and pouring concrete, painting, grinding custom deck elements and installing fencing.
The first task for the team was to set the cable sag, which ensured that deck and handrail cables were positioned in the same way. This was done by winching the cables one by one by hand and then gradually releasing them until they were level.
Following the manual fabrication of several bridge elements, our team used the tools they had brought to hand finish the key components of the bridge such as the swings and decking. Our team needed to overcome a number of challenges to successfully complete the footbridge. The majority of the project was completed through sheer human effort and in collaboration of our volunteers and a big local team. The team of 30 people had to move infill rocks by hand, as well as transporting, mixing and laying two concrete slabs.
Value
With the new bridge providing a safe crossing for six communities, more than 7,400 people will directly benefit. Over time farm profits, employment and overall household income will rise; healthcare visits and vaccination rates will go up and literacy and student attendance, especially among girls, are set to increase significantly. Bridges to Prosperity estimates that annual income is set to rise by 30%, 2,753 more children will have safe access to a school and 774 more women will be able to have attended births. While passing on our expertise, our volunteers not only gained insights into working practices in another country, but they also developed invaluable problem-solving skills, relying on their ingenuity to overcome hurdles.
