It’s more simple than brilliant but it’s brilliant because it’s so simple.

The “One Egg A Day” project is rescuing children from malnutrition and reducing child mortality in a corner of Rwanda.

The Anglican Diocese of Shyria nestles in the north west of this small East African country with a population of about 12 million people. ([url=http://www.shyiradiocese.org/]http://www.shyiradiocese.org/[/url]) The Diocese shares a border with Uganda to the north and the DR Congo to the west. This is where the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) swarmed south from Uganda towards the end of the 100 day Rwandan Genocide of 1994. The carnage was as intense here as in any other part of the nation.

Spectacular volcanic mountains stand sentinel over the high ridges and deep valleys of one of the most scenic regions in all of Africa. Gorillas dans la Brume (Gorillas in the Mist) puts this part of Africa front and centre of the western tourist’s bucket list.

Secluded in the mountains are hotels charging $1,000 a night for a bed. Struggling in the valleys are Rwandan where children are suffering from malnutrition.

Enter the local bishop, Dr Laurent Mbanda and his One Egg A Day project.

It started when Laurent noticed that throughout the villages of his Diocese there were thousands of unattended children, between the age of two and five roaming the dusty streets that criss-crossed the foothills, villages and valleys. Their parents left them unsupervised at home while they laboured in the fields for a pittance. Often a five year old would be left to care for one or even two younger siblings.

Laurent gathered the clergy and catechists of his 42 parishes and 323 congregations together and suggested that their church buildings could be used during the week to accommodate pre-schools for these unattended children. A very small fee could be charged to employ pre-school teachers and carers. It would be a win-win situation. Parents could work the fields with the assurance that their kids were not only being looked after, but given a form of pre-school education. 

Many parents saw how good it was for their kids so they found the $1 monthly to pay the fees to make these pre-schools sustainable. Young men and women could ‘vocation’ into becoming pre-school teachers and helpers thus providing much needed employment for young adults in the region. The church was meeting a vital need in the community.

But Laurent also noticed that many of these children were malnourished from Kwashiorkor (protein deficiency). Their diet consisted only of starch. Their families were too poor to own poultry, let alone cattle. A North American social entrepreneur has set up a poultry farm where eggs are being produced on a commercial scale to resource the One Egg A Day Project. Currently there are 1,500 eggs being produced daily and distributed in 17 of the 200 preschools in the Diocese.

It is the highlight of the child’s day. Preschool goes from 8am to 1pm. At 11am the hard-boiled eggs arrive. Children wait quietly and expectantly. They dutifully wash their hands as a basin of water is passed around the classroom (sanitation and hygiene education). A basin of eggs follows and the children sit upright, buzzing but anticipation, on their rows of roughly made benches as they carefully take their egg from the basin. It’s as if they are handling grandma’s precious Waterford Crystal, except that for most of them the genocide took any chance of knowing their grandma away and Waterford Crystal is as useless to them as it is to, well, anyone, anywhere in the world really.

With eyes as wide as saucers, tongues poking in different directions through intense concentration, each child goes to work on peeling the egg with the care and precision of a watchmaker. Every mouthful is savoured like its a sample dish from last year’s MasterChef champion.

The project does more than provide essential protein in the child’s diet. It provides employment for people at the poultry farm where the eggs are produced. The Shyira Diocese will eventually own the poultry farm providing a source of income to supplement the annual budget of US$275,000. Yes US$275,000 operates a diocese with over 300 congregations, providing health and education resources as well as theological education for the future leaders of the 75,000 members of the diocese. 

The egg-a-day program means in the diocesan preschools means that there is:
•    a safe place for kids to go while their mums and dads work in the fields
•    somewhere to learn letters, numbers and other important stuff before starting school
•    an opportunity to learn about Jesus who made them, loves them, died for them and provides for their basic needs.

And these pre-schools are where they get their only nutritious meal of the day.

During the month of April, which also marks the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, I am going on a diet of eating a hard boiled egg a day as my source of protein as well as small amounts of fruit, vegetables and a little dairy. I am asking people to sponsor me for from $1 a day up to $10 a day for the month. I am sponsoring myself $10 a day ($300), the amount I estimate I will save from not buying red and white meat. As the month begins I already have 14 sponsors who have committed over $3,200. By the end of the month I hope to $30,000 worth of sponsorship.

Would you join me in such a diet and find some sponsors or simply sponsor me at $1 a day ($30), $10 a day ($300) or any multiple of a dollar a day for the month to provide an egg a day for some of these Rwandan kids?