Education as Access & Power

At TWB, educational programming and training is at the forefront of our model. We don’t just employ any woman in our bakeries but rather those who have completed our intensive 200+ hour (now accredited) technical and vocational educational training program.

Education is access: access to a better income, a better job, a better life but most importantly, access to choices. The women we train, support and employ have a choice, every day, to come to work at TWB. To (oftentimes) wake up before the sun and work well into the afternoon, creating unique, healthy products for their communities, pushing through the lows of business and celebrating the highs. Education is power.

And you know what else is powerful? Witnessing our women transform from students to teachers and empowering a new group of women.

Enter Liziki. This woman is the definition of a rockstar. She has been with TWB since the beginning (2015) and works as a professional baker at the Kigali Flagship. She can bust out an order of 300+ sweet potato rolls in a morning, keep everyone on track to meet production goals and is just an amazing human being, mother, and friend. When our newest bakery, Gicumbi, was struggling with workflows, I had an idea: what if Liziki spent a few days with our newest employees and taught them her tips and tricks? The team at TWB has been experimenting with sending our more experienced women to train new, less experienced groups and the results had been positive.  

Liziki spent three full days at our Gicumbi bakery leading, teaching and demonstrating. It was inspiring to see her in her element and to see how much respect the Gicumbi women had for her. From my corner office, I could overhear them asking her questions from when to rotate trays in the oven, to what the ideal rising time was, to how to work faster. Prior to Liziki’s arrival, the production team has been finishing baking around 2PM, which caused them to miss market/daylight sales opportunities. After one day of Liziki’s expertise, they were cranking out 15 kilograms of bread before noon! Not only was she empowering the women, she was empowered as, now, a trainer.

As if I wasn’t already beaming with pride, for Liziki and our Gicumbi group, on her last day, Liziki gave a powerful speech to the women. Her exact words were,

“Sometimes the Kigali group, we had to wake up early and come to work and sometimes we stayed late but it didn’t matter because we we’re so proud of what we were doing and we wanted to achieve something in our lives. We (the Kigali group) are where we are now because of TWB and our hard work. Some days will be hard but you must have confidence, work hard, never give up and be proud of what you are doing. This is how you will grow and achieve more.”

I couldn’t stop beaming (crying) with pride and joy: for Liziki, for our Kigali women, for our Gicumbi women, for ALL the women TWB has the privilege of working with and for our work-our gritty, innovative and dedicated work. It truly is impacting lives and that is #breadpower.

Knowledge Sharing at TWB

Last week, our Gicumbi Training Group came to TWB’s Kigali Flagship for a tour, so they could learn from TWB’s first graduates in Kigali.

The idea behind the visit was to see how work flows within a TWB Bakery and the baking techniques that are used. Also, our team knew it would be powerful for trainees to listen and hear stories and testimonies from current employees.

Two things that amazed me while I was leading this visit in Kigali.  

First, I was impressed to see how our Kigali women were confidently teaching the newer trainees. The second experience that was particularly inspiring was to hear testimonies that were shared.

To see trainees teaching other trainees – this is the true sign of empowerment. If women who were trained three years ago are now teaching the new trainees, that is a huge success and transformative milestone.

Kigali women were able to show to the new (Gicumbi) trainees how to make different bread products in different shapes. The Gicumbi women were also excited and inspired by the words of encouragement from women who have been with TWB for three years.

At TWB, we believe that transformation can truly happen once women can transfer the skills and knowledge they gained to their children or their neighbor.

That is now happening.  

One women from Gicumbi, Uwimana, said, “It was my first time to see the capital city of Kigali and it was amazing to see the women baking good breads and good shapes. If they started just like us and they are now making these nice products, then so shall we.”

That is #breadpower.

Gicumbi Training

When I left my Peace Corps village in Gicumbi District in August 2017, I knew I would be back. What I didn’t realize was that I would return so soon and that I would be launching TWB’s fifth Bakery in a Box training program with a group of refugee and Rwandese women.

In November 2017, I sat down with TWB’s Country Director, Noel, to discuss potential new sites to launch a bakery in Rwanda. We had both recently joined the TWB team and were eager to select a new location for TWB’s expansion. When he asked me my thoughts, I almost jumped out of my chair with excitement, “Gicumbi!”

Around two weeks later, Noel, Julie and I took our first of many trips up to the true north of Rwanda- just 1.5 hours outside of Kigali but world’s different. We visited with local leaders I had built relationships with during my two years there, cruised around the extremely mountainous and beautiful sector and started imagining #breadpower making an impact in Gicumbi.

As we curved around the large hills, I pointed out the refugee camp that was near Gicumbi Town. It’s one of the oldest camps in the north and consists almost entirely of Congolese refugees who fled in the early to mid-90s. Although during my Peace Corps service I never entered the camp, I was well aware of its presence, the prevalence of unemployment and malnutrition. Not to mention Gicumbi was seriously lacking fresh, nutritious bread. Most of the bread is high in oil, sugar and other preservatives and shipped in from Uganda, Kigali and other edges of the country. What an opportunity to provide TWB’s fresh, nutritious bread to the Gicumbi community and vocational training and employ Rwandans AND refugees in one of the most lush, beautiful districts in Rwanda? The ball was rolling.

After a few more trips, connecting with District and Camp leaders and some phone calls with our U.S. team, we decided Gicumbi would be the next location for our new bakery. And this time we were doing things differently. Among independently vetting candidates, securing a multi-functional house for training and a bakery and revamping our curriculum, Gicumbi is TWB’s first training with refugees, and it’s a population the team has dreamed of including for a while.

On Tuesday, April 24th, 2018, we officially launched our new bakery training with a mix of 16 incredible Rwandese and refugee women. Local leaders informed us that Rwandans and refugees already had a positive relationship, and that the Government of Rwanda’s priority is to develop programs to foster even stronger connections the two populations.  

In the first week of training, Aime, the Training Manager and I, both witnessed the positive relations between Rwandese and refugees. We witnessed constant support, encouragement and communication as they learned about what TWB is and does, Business Math, Nutrition and Personal Growth and Development. They took a pre-test and baseline survey so we can measure the impact of our training program and get to know them on a deeper level. A bakery is never just a bakery. We want these women, like all our current women employees, to feel safe, empowered and healthy.

It was inspiring to see women from different backgrounds, different hardships, different cultures, all sit together in the same room and all want the same thing: opportunity. An opportunity to gain knowledge, skills, confidence, and income. An opportunity to change the social and economic factors of their lives. In the past, many of these women, especially the refugees, have lacked choice and opportunity for a better life.

Now, over the course of two months, they will have access to TWB’s comprehensive vocational business training program and the opportunity for immediate employment following.

These women are the next group of Strong Women Baking Bread, and I’m so excited to watch them rise.

Zoomed in on Gicumbi

For the last 3 years, TWB has made tremendous strides toward achieving our milestones. Bakeries have launched throughout the country of Rwanda and the TWB staff has almost tripled. These are signs of success.

In 2018, TWB is focusing on Gicumbi as our next training and bakery launch site. Our preparations are on a good track, including developing the training schedule, partner relationships, and interview process for the participants. We will be launching the training for this group on April 23rd.

Gicumbi is in the northern part of Rwanda. Within this community, TWB will be working with Rwandans, as well as a diverse group of refugees living in the Gihembe Refugee Camp. The location offers a good business opportunity because of the local demans for food products. Additionally, those living within the refugee camp do not have farms to cultivate, so they only rely on the crops that are produced by the local Rwandans.

In terms of bread demand, our market testing has been positive. TWB has found a need for the breads in this district because most of the breads are brought from Kigali.

TWB breads use locally sourced ingredients and are highly nutritious, delicious and affordable. Among children under the age of 5 years, stunting levels were 36.6% in Gicumbi district according to the Demographic Health Survey in 2015. Thus, our breads can be a mechanism to fight against malnutrition and improve families’ nutrition as well as nutrition for the entire community.

Moreover, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, in coordination with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), recently changed their subsidy program for refugees in Rwanda. They are piloting a cash-subsidy system – meaning that each refugee, rather than being given her allotted rice or corn subsidy, is given the cash equivalent. The hope is that the cash system will spawn micro-economies.

Stay tuned and will be updated for more progress on this new opportunity arising…

This is #breadpower. 

Julie and Aime on a recent site visit to TWB’s upcoming bakery site in Gicumbi, Rwanda.