23 August 2010
Part of starting up is being able to get around town. So, I took the vehicle to the local Pirelli dealer to have desperately needed new tires put on the vehicle. I expected a bit of an adventure, but I was pleasantly surprised that it only took 45 minutes, and I received a nice tire cover for the spare! Granted, I had to part with over $1,300 for the tires, but nonetheless I was pleased.
From the tire shop I went to the UNICEF office for a meeting to discuss the national nutrition supply chain. The focus was on how four specific nutritional products flow through the country to the eventual end user. I learned a lot, and it was great to connect with Dr. Abiud Omwega who heads up nutrition for UNICEF in Rwanda. One key thing I learned was that RUTF (that’s what MANA is) was declared an “essential medicine” in Rwanda, and therefore is exempt from Value Added Tax (VAT) of 18%. That’s great news and means more children can be served since the price of the product isn’t increased by the tax.