A Great Place to Work

We might think earning a salary or a wage is everything we need to move within our daily lives at work, but it is not the only thing that motivates us to reach our professional goals at The Women’s Bakery (TWB). In fact, our progress and movement depends on many things.  

For example, other motivating factors in the workplace include the environment of our work, our team members, our supervisors, the products, etc. At TWB, we have had the motivation to move forward with all that is happening at our flagship bakery especially because we have a supportive, meaningful, delightful, and beautiful workplace.  

Launching the flagship bakery was a major achievement for the team and even more so for the women we work with. This is the place where they feel comfortable, happy and proud to work in such amazing place, and this leads to their desire to keep working hard, to learn, and to pursue more opportunities for sales, product development, and more!

Oooooh! I can tell more about our café space which is an enjoyable spot to be; our customers really feel comfortable eating TWB’s tasty sweet potato rolls, honey twists, and muffins. They love these products so much that sometimes they fall asleep on swings after doing their work. 

Imagine…

Just come by!!!

Education Never Ends

At TWB’s Kigali Bakery, we have been conducting Nutrition Extension lessons for the last nine weeks with TWB women that work at the bakery.

Each lesson (totaling one hour) occurred once a week, covering the importance of balanced diet, malnutrition status in Rwanda, breastfeeding, child development, and women’s health. At the end of each lesson, the women shared a nutritious meal and reflected on the experience of learning and working together.

After the final lesson, I, as the training manager, held an informational dialogue to collect feedback from the women about their experience with TWB’s pilot nutrition extension program.

Nearly all participants commented on the acquired understanding of Rwanda’s 1,000 Days Campaign. One participant spoke proudly, “I never knew what the 1,000 days campaign in Rwanda meant,” but after the training, “I know the 1,000 days is about healthy nutrition from when a mother knows she is pregnant until a child is 2 years old of age.”

Another participant said that thought she had forgotten most of the nutrition lessons she had in the first training (three years ago), the Nutrition Extension Program was a good refresher for the content.

“I had forgotten most of the things we had learned before, but this lesson extension came as a reminder and refresher, I am going to go back and really put in practice what I learned, especially breastfeeding.”

At TWB, we believe that education is an endless process. We always learn to improve and that is why we developed the Nutrition Extension in the first place: so that we can remind our women that their and their child’s health matter.  

Education never ends; we will continue to educate TWB women and the community throughout Rwanda on the importance of healthy nutrition for individuals, and for families. 

#breadpower #nutritiousanddelicious #togetherwerise

Transcending Culture

Written by TWB Intern, Emily Sturtavant. 

For the past four months I have been traveling throughout East Africa with a study abroad program. My travels began in August; as I started my experience living abroad, I had a base knowledge of the area, limited understanding of the local languages and a yet, a hunger to learn about the lives and cultures of the region. Visiting both Kenya and Tanzania, I now have had the opportunity to intern with The Women's Bakery in Rwanda.

During this time I have begun to realize the importance and power of shared moments.

On my first day working with TWB, I had to opportunity to bake bread with TWB women. I was excited to spend time with TWB bakers and get a chance to bake, one of my favorite hobbies. Yet, with my inadequate knowledge (read: absolutely zero) of Kinyarwanda I couldn’t ask how to make something or what I could do to help.

Baking, however, is something that transcends culture and language. It’s something that needs only showing, no telling, to share the activity. I watched as the women carefully cut and weighed the dough before splitting the pieces in half. Then I helped to roll two pieces out into long snakes before twisting them together into the delicious honey twist I had eaten earlier this morning. Throughout the next couple of hours I helped mix, knead, twist and bake the bread that is the base of this business. 

I can say that I have learned a little Kinyarwanda since my first day here, but I still communicate with the women who work here mostly through smiles and high fives getting my point across just fine in the process. Baking transcends these barriers and I am grateful for this opportunity to learn this with TWB in Rwanda.

Carrot Bread...Really?!

Two weeks ago, TWB opened a bakery in Remera, Nyabisindu, a very trafficked area in Kigali, where many people depend on daily contracted work for income. Moreover, the diet in this area typically encompasses chapatti and white breads that have a lot of sugar and artificial butter, like most bread products on the market.

The TWB bakers are doing a great job of explaining the unique, nutritional value of our breads. This week, Jean de Dieu, a motorcycle taxi driver, came to the bakery and asked, “What kind of bread is this?” TWB graduate, Liziki replied, “It’s carrot bread.” Jean de Dieu asked again with so much surprise, ”Carrot bread!?! Carrot bread?! Really, how is that possible?”

TWB is actively working to introduce a new product that people are not yet used to. Our breads are unique and nutritive. When customers enter our bakery and we explain that our breads are made from carrots or bananas, just like Jean de Dieu, they ask us how it is possible to make bread from carrots, which many are familiar with as an ingredient for a sauce. 

After we explain to them the nutritive value they have; they taste them, and prefer them over the other types of breads they are used to. Now, that's bread power.