HTA-0564: Twiyubake — Build Together (Rwanda Family Resilience)

A. Story Identification

B. Content Summary

This comprehensive documentary profiles USAID's Twiyubake ("Build Together") program in Rwanda, a five-year initiative reaching a quarter of a million Rwandans in 50,000 vulnerable households. Henry narrates the film, which follows the family of Jean-Claude and Perlagi as they transform from poverty, malnutrition, and domestic conflict to health, savings, and entrepreneurship.

The film systematically documents Twiyubake's holistic, family-centered approach through multiple interventions: case management volunteers who visit households biweekly; Positive Deviance Hearth groups teaching nutrition; kitchen gardens and farmer field schools; community health clubs promoting hygiene and sanitation; early childhood development centers; HIV/AIDS testing and treatment linkage; male champions combating gender-based violence; youth clubs and TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training); and village savings and lending groups. Each intervention is illustrated through specific beneficiaries — from baby Aline recovering from malnutrition to former abuser Niyomugao Gaita becoming a male champion, to a pottery cooperative that secured a government contract.

The documentary culminates with Jean-Claude and Perlagi's transformation: they now have two pigs, a banana business, savings, and dreams of building a kitchen and buying cows. Program leader Samson Radani reflects on the irreversible positive changes across communities.

C. Structured Metadata

D. Notable Quotes

"Twiyubake is a Kinyarwanda word which means build together."

"I wasn't a normal person. I was like an animal. I was drinking. I was upsetting my wife and children. When they saw me, they would run away."

"I knew that I was HIV positive, but I didn't accept it. I used to hide myself when I took the treatment, but now I could even go on TV and say that I am HIV positive."

"This program called Twiyubake helped us out of poverty. Now we are entrepreneurs."

E. Source Assets

F. Production Notes

Emotional Moments — Baby Aline's malnutrition recovery; the HIV-positive woman's journey from hiding to openness; Niyomugao's transformation from abuser to champion; the pottery cooperative's pride.

Signature Henry Moments — Henry's narration seamlessly weaves between deeply personal family stories and program-level statistics, maintaining emotional engagement while communicating complex development outcomes.

G. Cross-References

H. Source Provenance

I. Archival Notes

Twiyubake is one of Henry's longest and most ambitious documentary narrations — 16 minutes covering an extraordinarily complex program with multiple intervention layers. The film demonstrates Henry's ability to maintain narrative coherence across diverse subjects (nutrition, HIV, gender violence, savings, youth development) while keeping the human story of one family as the emotional throughline. This is sophisticated documentary storytelling that would be at home on any international broadcast network. The program's holistic approach — treating the whole family rather than isolated problems — mirrors Henry's own storytelling philosophy of connecting disparate elements into a unified narrative. Note: 16_Rwanda_2018.txt is a near-identical duplicate, possibly a later edit or version with different titling.

I. Video Review (V2 Upgrade)

Visual Description

A comprehensive documentary shot across multiple Rwandan districts. Opens with a family (Jean Claude Nzitabakuze, wife Pelargie, and their child) walking through their farm. Moves through diverse settings: village homes, agricultural fields, community meetings, HIV/AIDS counseling sessions, youth clubs, TVET training centers (welding, masonry, cooking, sewing, hairdressing), savings group meetings, and a pottery cooperative. The cinematography is professional with well-composed interview setups, relevant b-roll, and smooth transitions. Text overlays introduce each thematic section. USAID, PEPFAR, and Global Communities Rwanda logos appear in credits.

Story Structure (Timestamped)

Henry's Participation

Henry served as Producer, Videographer, Editor, AND Narrator — a complete one-man production. Credits confirm: "PRODUCERS: Malaika Neumann, Henry Tenenbaum / VIDEOGRAPHY, EDITING AND NARRATION: Henry Tenenbaum / EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Samson Radeny, Ph.D." This represents the fullest expression of Henry's documentary filmmaking capabilities — he shot, edited, and narrated the entire 16-minute film. His narration is warm and authoritative, providing context between interview segments conducted in Kinyarwanda (with subtitles).

Signature Moments

The opening sequence — Jean Claude walking with his family through their farm while describing their transformation — establishes Henry's storytelling approach: leading with human connection before institutional context. Gaetan's confession of past abuse and transformation into a "male champion" is a powerful moment that Henry's editing handles with sensitivity. The credits reveal this as essentially a solo production by Henry, demonstrating remarkable range.

Production Credits (confirmed from video)

- Producers: Malaika Neumann, Henry Tenenbaum

- Videography, Editing and Narration: Henry Tenenbaum

- Executive Producer: Samson Radeny, Ph.D.

- Funded by: USAID

- Organizations: Global Communities Rwanda, PEPFAR

Transcript

[00:14] My child, I saw that she was not well. She had no strength because we were not eating well. I did not have a nice life. I was not well. I didn't understand myself with my wife. There was also conflict in our home. Little money. I had a bad life.

[00:47] And then, Twiyubake. A quarter of a million Rwandans, adults and children, in 50,000 vulnerable households. They are all part of an ambitious five-year program funded by USAID and implemented by Global Communities. These are the people of Twiyubake. Twiyubake is a Kinyarwanda word which means build together. My name is Samson Radani. I'm the team leader for the USAID Twiyubake program.

[01:25] Twiyubake's primary goal is to promote resilience among vulnerable families. And in the context of Twiyubake, vulnerable communities are those communities that tend to be affected by different conditions, including health conditions such as HIV, malnutrition, or it could be economic conditions. So we take a unique approach, a family-centered approach. You get the entire family and you have children and you have youth and you have adults. Their needs can be very diverse. So we apply a concept called case management approach.

[02:02] My name is Aisha Kieh-Janvier. I'm a case management volunteer of Twiyubake. The role of the case management volunteer that we train and assign, they work with these households and developing care plans. When I first visited this house, I realized that there were a lot of problems. There was a lot of dirt around. Also, the husband and wife had real conflicts. They visit this household every other week. And so if there are any gaps, they will discuss those gaps with the families.

[02:43] And the most immediate problem was baby Aline's malnutrition. In Rwanda, we know that 38 percent of children are experiencing malnutrition. People think malnutrition is caused by the absence of food. While that might be true in some cases, often the case is that these children tend to eat food that is not necessarily full of the nutrients that we expect them to be eating. If we have children that are severely malnourished, we refer them to health facilities. But the ones that have moderate malnutrition, those then supported through the PDHearth or the positive deviance hearth groups, their caregivers learn how to respond to whatever nutrition challenge that they may be going through.

[03:37] For two weeks, Perlagi and Aline have been attending daily groups where trained fellow villagers are sharing the good nutrition practices that they are using at home to keep their families healthy. My name is Nyrahilwa Beatrice. I am a community-based volunteer for USAID Twiyubake. From the first day, we weigh the child every day. We cook a balanced diet for 14 days. We teach positive nutrition practices what kind of foods they should be preparing for their families. We teach them how those foods should be prepared. When we see that the child has improved, we continue to teach hygiene. And we also encourage them to create a kitchen garden at home.

[04:25] Kitchen gardens are small plots of land where families can grow food, particularly vegetables, in their own backyard. Most households learn how to develop this kitchen garden from the farmer field school, which is another innovation that the program is promoting. People used to plant in the traditional way, but as the soil becomes scarce, because of the population is increasing, we teach them modern farming techniques suitable for smaller land plots. There is no excuse for not growing the right healthy food anymore.

[05:06] It's a lesson that Jean-Claude and Perlagi have taken to heart. The family now has a fertile kitchen garden and they've adopted a healthier diet. Another concern was the household's poor sanitation and hygiene. That has changed as well. They still have no plumbing, but hand washing is now routine using this homemade, pedal-powered tippy-tap. They've constructed a sanitary latrine, and wet dishes no longer sit in dirty water thanks to this homemade drying rack.

[05:40] And here is how they learned to build that drying rack, as well as the latrine and the tippy-tap from spirited, hands-on lessons like this at their local community health club, supported by Twiyubake. All the beneficiaries within the village form a club so that we can create that awareness within the villages. After being trained by Twiyubake, we were given teaching materials and we established this community health club. Here we meet to learn hygiene best practices in our village. We are ranked first in hygiene in our home. The village was the pride of the region. They even announced it on the radio. It's been a really nice change. And a major cause for celebration.

[06:40] In addition to physical health of the children, we also focus on early childhood development. Vulnerable families often don't have the access to kindergarten, to nursery schools, and so ECD becomes their only chance to get a good start in life. And this is a place where they can learn and use toys and things that are in their environment to be able to learn. My name is Musab Jimana Esther. I have a child at the Early Childhood Development Center. Before, she did not speak. But since she started attending the program, she has changed. She is different. The child is thriving, even socializing with other children.

[07:31] Another major focus of Twiyubake program is HIV/AIDS. We work with lots of households that are impacted by HIV. There are also issues around children themselves living with HIV. And in Rwanda, for example, we know that a number of those children are not yet identified or even linked to treatment. And part of our responsibility in Twiyubake is to identify those children and make sure that they are tested and if they are positive, linked to treatment and that they continue to be on treatment. So our case management volunteers are trained to provide HIV-related counselling, and once they're put on treatment, we follow up with all those families to make sure that they continue in treatment.

[08:19] I not only work with HIV-positive beneficiaries, but also with others in the community who were not lucky enough to enter into the program. I also work and talk to them about HIV infection. I encourage them to prevent HIV and to get tested, so people see me as a friend of the family. She helped me accepting the disease. I knew that I was HIV positive, but I didn't accept it. I used to hide myself when I took the treatment, but now I could even go on TV and say that I am HIV positive.

[09:02] As part of our holistic approach, we also focus on gender equality. My name is Niyomugao Gaita. I wasn't a normal person. I was like an animal. And one strategy that we apply to advance gender equality is the engagement of male champions. I was drinking. I was upsetting my wife and children. When they saw me, they would run away. These are individuals that are trained by the program to engage with young men, boys and fathers, to learn positive social norms. When USAID Twiyubake came, they taught me, I learned and became aware of the violence I was exercising at home. I made the decision. These male champions, we want them to speak up against gender-based violence at the family and outside of the family. We want them to be champions, just as the name suggests.

[10:14] Twiyubake's family-centered approach also supports young people within families to safely transition into adulthood. Twiyubake youth clubs like this are making a difference, providing recreation, peer support, and education from trained community-based volunteers. Before I came to the club, I was not obeying my parents. I was impossible. The first thing I learned was to avoid drugs, and I encouraged my friends to do the same. The second thing I learned was to avoid HIV and STDs and unwanted pregnancies.

[10:58] Other challenges that young people experience, for example, include economic issues. Around 40 percent of Rwanda, of all population are youth, concentrated in farming activities, but we don't have enough land for agriculture, which is making a lot of jobless. And that is why Twiyubake is also in the career training business, or TVET, Technical and vocational education and training, from construction to hospitality to hairstyles. I have one parent, my mother. Although I do not earn much, I support her and my little siblings to assist them with school fees. We are creating jobs, they are getting money, they are earning for their families, even for themselves. So the TVET program has a tangible impact for youth especially.

[11:55] One of the difficulties we experience with these households is this fatalistic attitude that many of the households feel that they don't have what it takes to be able to grow or to be able to develop. Often we are told we don't have anything that we can save. And we begin to teach them that it's possible for anyone to save, even saving a very small amount of money every week, that small amount of money will grow. So over time, these households begin to realize that they actually can begin to save, and over time they can borrow money from their own savings, and it can be used for a whole lot of things.

[12:39] Twiyubake's village savings and lending groups have been especially successful among the youth. In this one savings group, members have saved and borrowed for a delivery bicycle, more farmland, a motorcycle taxi, a shop expansion, and several sewing machines. And among their elders, these Twiyubake Savings Group members pooled their resources to transform their low-wage handicraft into a veritable industry. This community, the group members used to do pottery, but they were doing it haphazard, everyone in his corner. So the savings group members, they took their savings plus the financial support provided with Twiyubake, and then they decided to work together as a cooperative. They managed to negotiate a contract with the government to supply a thousand cooking stoves but they will have more orders when they finish the first order. It's not like it was before when we did not earn anything. This program called Twiyubake helped us out of poverty. Now we are entrepreneurs.

[13:58] Jean-Claude and Perlagi are also feeling an entrepreneurial spark thanks to their participation in the Twiyubake Savings Group, which has helped provide savings discipline, financial literacy, and a new sense of hope. We now have two pigs. We have a business selling bananas. And we even have money from savings. Something I would like to achieve is to build a kitchen. We don't have one now. I want to buy two cows and I want to ensure that my children all finish school. My child is healthy and gaining weight. I have gained something that improved my life, and yes, the life of my whole family.

[14:49] We know that there is a lot yet to be done, but we've already witnessed lots of positive change in all these families. We've seen individuals who had nothing to save and now they're beginning to invest. Families that did not know about nutrition, now we have families practicing positive nutrition and having healthy children. We have families that had issues with hygiene and sanitation. And now we have families with very clean environment and we know that if they continue to do that in the future all these things will be sustained and all the change will continue and we will have a stronger and more prosperous communities in Rwanda.