Sharing Knowledge
We don’t want to just build bakeries in Rwanda, we want to build an ecosystem of community and support across our bakeries, allowing TWB bakers to share ideas with each other, collaborate, trouble shoot challenges, and encourage each other with successes. TWB graduates are able to share their knowledge and experiences with each other, and with current trainees.
With two groups in Rwanda having graduated from our training program in 2016, and another group coming up on graduation in early February 2017, we are steadily expanding The Women’s Bakery network and community across Rwanda.
While some of our goals at TWB are focused on training more women, employing more women, and launching more sustainable bakeries, our growth in Rwanda also accomplishes other significant goals. One these is engaging graduates and current bakery employees in sharing their knowledge with current trainees, as well as with TWB bakers and bakeries across the country.
We don’t want to just build bakeries in Rwanda, we want to build an ecosystem of community and support across our bakeries, allowing TWB bakers to share ideas with each other, collaborate, trouble shoot challenges, and encourage each other with successes. TWB graduates are able to share their knowledge and experiences with each other, and with current trainees.
Since concluding our training program in Bumba in the Western Province of Rwanda, we have facilitated knowledge sharing with the bakery located in Kigali, the capital city. The two groups have been able to share recipe tricks, adjustments, record keeping tips, and even marketing strategies. Managers from each bakery have traveled 3.5 hours one way to visit each other, share insight and challenges, and gather ideas from each other’s bakeries.
Currently, the training group located east of Kigali is conducting their baking practical. For the last two weeks, one of our skilled bakers from the Kigali bakery has traveled daily to the training site to lead the baking sessions and to impart her expertise. Over the next two weeks, another employee from the Kigali bakery will lead training sessions on sales and marketing, providing the trainee group with her firsthand knowledge and advice on jump-starting sales and finding customers during the crucial first months of business operations.
As TWB expands in Rwanda and throughout the region, we aim to create more opportunities for shared learning amongst our bakery and trainee groups. By empowering women to circulate their knowledge and skills with one another, we hope to not only strengthen the TWB community but to also create new avenues for women to utilize their skills and expand their own networks.
Technology & The Future of Bakery Sales for TWB
Following three intensive days of collaboration, innovation, and pitches by nearly 15 professionals across professional sectors in Denver for the Posner Center Hackathon, TWB was selected as the winner and recipient for funds to implement the prototype application.
The Women’s Bakery satellite office in Denver is based in The Posner Center for International Development, a co-working space that houses over 60 international organizations. From Guatemala to Rwanda, from China to Syria, the building hosts a multitude of organizations and enterprises seeking poverty alleviation around the world, with a particular focus on cross-collaboration. Each year, the Posner Center hosts a “Poverty Hack” to bring together experts across sectors, leaders in international development, and Posner Center members to work together on various challenges faced by international organizations.
Recently, TWB was a finalist and the selected winner for the 2016 “Posner Poverty Hack.”
With a desire to increase automation in sales for business optimization for our Rwanda-based bakeries, TWB presented a challenge to develop text-based mobile tool. Over the course of three days (from July 10-12, 2016), over 15 individuals worked to brainstorm, develop, and innovatively build a contextualized and innovative solution.
When final pitches took place on the last day of the competition, the panel of judges, including Eleanor Allen (Water for People), Dr. Ann Hudock (Plan International), and Asad Aziz (Colorado State University), chose TWB as the organization with the solution that held the most potential for impact, collaboration, context, and scale.
As the winner, TWB receives funding from sponsor and funder Cognizant Quick Left for implementation. TWB will be working to roll-out a plan with input from TWB women, local developers, and hackathon participants. Our team expects to integrate a mobile sales tool early next year.
A special thanks to The Posner Center for International Development and all Hackathon participants for The Women’s Bakery: Yona Brodeur, Patrick Smith, JoJo Aggers, Jordan Smith, Monica Wright, Micah Gurard-Levin, Sam Lindstrom, Regina Peyfuss, Stephen Richardson, Maxwell “Wolf” Reichard, Amy Greene, Natalie Schreffler and Katie Hile.
