Girinka meaning may you have a cow is an old cultural practice in Rwanda
whereby a cow was given by one person to another either as a sign of
respect and gratitude or as a marriage dowry.

The Rwandan government in its efforts to reconstruct and nurture a shared
national identity adopted this cultural practice as one of the Home Grown
sustainable solutions where it gives a cow to every poor household in
response to the alarmingly high rate of childhood malnutrition and as a way
to accelerate poverty reduction and integrate livestock and crop farming.

The program is based on the premise that providing a dairy cow to poor
households helps to improve their livelihood as a result of a more
nutritious and balanced diet from milk, increased agricultural output
through better soil fertility as well as greater incomes by commercialising
dairy products.

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– Sophie Mbugua