Actors of a local, popular radio soap opera dubbed “Urunana” (a Kinyarwanda word to mean, literally, “hand-in-hand”) on Wednesday thrilled over 1,000 residents in Raranzige cell of Rusenge sector, Nyaruguru district, Southern Rwanda.
Performing upon a wood-made stage and their voices relayed through loud-speakers, Urunana actors spread a wide range of messages on hygiene and sanitation, including hand washing (before and after eating – and after using the washroom), using clean, boiled, safe drinking water and taking care of water infrastructures, among others.
“I am happy now. Thanks to those actors, I have seen how to wash my hands when they get dirty”, 29-year-old Egide Gasarabwe told me, deep in the crowd, pointing his right-hand fingers to two actors on the podium, performing in one of the opera’s scenes.
“I have even seen Kankwanzi [a name of one of the actresses] eye-to-eye. I only used to hear her on radio”, Gasarabwe added, smiling.
And surely Gasarabwe does have a lot to rejoice about. Like seeing, with his very eyes, actors he only used to hear in Urunana, a reproductive health radio soap opera aired weekly on BBC Gahuza and rebroadcast on Radio Rwanda’s airwaves.
And he is not alone.
The grey-haired, partly teethless Vénantie Mukanyarwaya has also trekked to Raranzige venue – from a nearby village − to watch live Urunana actors performing.
“I used to hear good stories about Urunana from my grandchildren and from some other children in my neighbourhood. And I have liked those stories even though I can’t hear them by myself as I don’t have a radio set”, said Mukanyarwaya who, not knowing her real age, only recalls she has been living since the time of Rwanda’s King Mutara Rudahigwa – which would make Mukanyarwaya at least 70 years old.
“Today I decided to come and watch Urunana actors by myself. And what they are talking about is good because hygiene and sanitation are vital for our life”, she hastened to add.
Wednesday’s Urunana soap opera performance is in line with a week to reflect on water and sanitation, a week stretching from last Friday’s World Water Day.
According to Maurice Nizeyimana, project manager at Salt Wash (Saving Lives Through Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) that works hand in hand with Urunana actors, the project aims at combating water-borne diseases. The project, he said, will also help build environmentally friendly toilets in schools across Nyaruguru district, building water taps, and sensitizing the local population on how to take care of water infrastructures.
The 42 month-project, run through a financial support from the European Union, is expected to cost 1.4 million Euros, said Nizeyimana.
Around at the performance venue, Angélique Nireberaho, Nyaruguru district’s Vice Mayor in charge of social affairs, said bringing in established actors was a good idea.
“They [actors] are stars and many people came to watch them performing. In so doing, they [actors] helped us raise awareness by spreading messages on hygiene and sanitation”, said Vice Mayor Nireberaho.
In 2012, Nyaruguru district Mayor, François Habitegeko, said 78 per cent of the district’s estimated population of over 270,000 people had access to clean, safe drinking water.
Rwanda targets to have supplied her total population in clean, safe drinking water come the year 2017, from the current national statistics estimated at about 80 per cent of Rwanda’s 10.5 million people.