The Girinka (one-cow-per-poor-family) program was created in response to the extreme
malnutrition that plagued more than half of the poorest citizens in the Republic of Rwanda prior
to 2006. Rwanda’s traditional wealth creation and distribution system of cow-giving served as a
platform for the creation of Girinka. The aim was to ensure milk supply for nutrition, and cow
manure for increased crop productivity. Without meaning to, however, Girinka has succeeded in
making entrepreneurs out of several previously malnourished citizens who have used proceeds
from sale of cow milk and increased crop output to set up various businesses. Entrepreneurship
can play a crucial role in offering an escape route out of poverty. International aid projects,
NGOs and governments are beginning to include rural entrepreneurship as an economic
empowerment strategy in poor countries. However, one challenge this approach faces is its
propensity to be designed outside of rural areas. The end result is often a form of
superimposition of external, ill-fitting, and therefore, unsustainable ideals on the cultural values
and socio-economic realities of the rural poor. In the final analysis, the percentage of failure of
such programs is high. The successes recorded by Girinka in Rwanda, therefore, demands
further analysis. By depending on case studies - generated through observations and in-depth
interviews - of successful Girinka generated entrepreneurial ventures, this paper attempts to
establish the program as a unique, culturally rooted, poverty alleviation strategy. Girinka
resonates, at the basic level, with the poorest of the poor and uneducated in Rwanda. The socialpsychological
proclivity to identify as wealthy according to community held beliefs can be said
to be a major motivating factor in turning the poor in Rwanda into successful entrepreneurs.