The organisation behind it
Dufatanye started as an association in 2003, founded by seven Rwandans, and later registered as an NGO. The founding purpose was to respond to the number of people in the community affected by malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, the genocide and poverty. The main vehicle has been its Village of Hope programme: kitchen gardens built at household level, capacity-building training, and laying hens and fruit trees provided to every household in the village alongside instruction in good agricultural practice.
The visit
Cooperative members guide you through the farms themselves and explain the agricultural changes that lifted their household nutrition and income — which is a more specific and more useful conversation than the generic development briefing this could easily be.
You then work. The visit includes hands-on traditional farming and harvesting, and the produce goes straight into the kitchen. Food is prepared on an earthen stove, in a cooking class where the exchange runs both directions, and everyone eats together. Three to four hours, and the last hour is the reason to come.
Where it fits
Dufatanye sits directly on the Big View Trail, which is by far the best way to reach it — walk in, spend the afternoon, walk out. It also runs the WEAD upcycling workshop, and the two combine into a full day.
Book through the visitor centre in Nyanza, not on the day.