Rwanda natives Theogene Mahoro and his wife, Hyacinthe Mahro Ayingeneye, lived in a refugee camp in Congo-Brazzaville in western Africa before coming to Vermont — he in 2004 and she in 2009.

“In Africa, we lived a community life, and we shared food,” said Ayingeneye who now works full-time on the couple’s 5-acre Mama Farm — named after her, the Mama of their eight children — in Williston.

Her husband works in the sanitation department at Rhino Foods in Burlington, and together they run the farm they purchased last year with the help of the Vermont Land Trust. There they raise goats, chickens, sheep, eggs, and a variety of organic African, Asian and American vegetables.

They are filling a demand for fresh meat; fresh goat meat is especially popular with African and Arabic customers, she said, but there is an increasing demand from American customers.

Before buying the Willison farm, the couple had a successful goat, chicken and vegetable business in the Pine Island Community Farm in Colchester. During summers they sold about 100 goats and 4,000 chickens a month.

In May of this year they had 100 goats and 2,000 chickens at Mama Farm and were expecting more.

Mahoro grew up on a small goat and chicken farm in Rwanda, in east-central Africa, and after university there he taught others to plant and raise animals.

He attributes his farming success in Vermont to God. “Everything is God. God gives you life, gives you everything.”

Life was difficult in the refugee camp, and Mahoro asked God for help. “I pray. I pray. I pray, and God said, ‘I am going to give back your good life,’” he said.

Mahoro and Ayingeneye are parishioners of St. Francis Xavier Church in Winooski.

“God blessed us because when we were in the refugee camp, we could have died,” he said. “We had no food, no job. We had nothing. We prayed, and God changed our life.”

Now they are happy to share the food they produce with others, even those who cannot pay. “When you give to people, you give to God,” he said. “When you share your food, it is like sharing with God.”

Ayingeneye — sometimes speaking in Swahili — noted that in their culture, people share food with anyone, even with people who don’t ask for it.

They live by the words on a Rwandan woven piece hanging in their living room: God bless you.

The couple is passing on their faith, their values, and their knowledge to their children — ages 11 to 34 — and hope one day one or more of them will take over the farm.

Meanwhile they continue to pray for the success of Mama Farm.

—Originally published in the Summer 2023 issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.