Rwanda: A Land of a Thousand Women

“Hey girl, what is your most unforgettable experience in Rwanda?”

Heather, one of the girls I met with The Women’s Bakery, asked me while we were having a campfire talk in a remote village in the Western Province of Rwanda. After spending 10 days in the East African country, that continues to recover from the traumatizing genocide in 1994, I realized that most of the memorable moments I had were somewhat attached to WOMEN.

I met most of the women during my work at The Women’s Bakery (TWB) through SEID (Sloan Entrepreneurs for International Development).

TWB is a social enterprise that is dedicated to empowering local women by teaching them baking and business skills. The women I met here are quite different, in terms of both educational and cultural backgrounds, yet they are somehow alike: independent, hardworking and elegant, providing me an unique and interesting perspective to learn about this country.

The “Ni BYO" woman - Jean

Jean (the lady in the pink dress) was one of the 9 women currently working at the bakery located in Remera, Kigali TWB’s first bakery in Rwanda.

Every time she saw me, she would say ”Ni BYO”(meaning "It’s true" in Kinyarwanda) to me cheerfully. Yes, the language barriers exist, but her passion and laughs made me feel at home.

Like the other women working in this bakery, she alternates her work at the bakery between morning and afternoon shifts. The morning shift involves the beginning of preparation for fresh batches of breads. The afternoon session also involves baking, in addition to taking the breads out into the community for sales.  

Marketing and selling the product can be challenging for some of the women, because they tend to be shy when introducing and pitching the bread to new customers. But Jean seems to be an exception; her firm eye contact, engaging hand gestures and childish smile make her such a sales genius. In fact, she has even become a teacher to new students engaged in the TWB program outside Kigali.

However,  Jean was not always so outgoing, “At the beginning of the training, she was rather shy and did not speak much. After completing the training for 150 hours, she gradually became confident and felt more empowered,” shared Meg, one of the TWB staff.  Jean herself proclaimed, “I want to work harder, earn more money and pay for my child’s education!”

In these conversations, I began to understand what empowerment really means for these women. It is not simply a result, it's a process that requires time and effort. But the impact is huge and sustainable: Once a stay-at-home mom who could not write nor read, Jean was sometimes ignored or disregarded. But now, she is becoming more optimistic towards life and empowered, financially and mentally. I believe this empowerment is transferrable. And that is what TWB is committed to, and what I came to Rwanda for: to help them replicate the bakery and its impact throughout Rwanda and other countries in Africa.

 The Superwoman - Yvonne

Yvonne is the Operations Manager of the Remera Bakery in Kigali. She joined TWB while studying finance at the University of Kigali.

She is beautiful, amiable, detail-oriented and extremely hardworking. I can tell that she is a woman with lots of stories, and I am glad that I could hear some of them before I left Rwanda.

For her, her role as Operations Manager is not only about getting things done in the bakery business, but also about managing people- resolving interpersonal conflicts and providing constant advice for women both at work and at home.

Women at TWB have learnt a lot from Yvonne, including inventory recording, financial management, goal setting, and life management. At the same time, Yvonne is also drawing some valuable lessons from the hands-on experiences at TWB. “One important thing that I learned at TWB is the meaning of leadership, it’s not school stuff, it’s more about showing carefulness, bringing communication and building trust within people.”

She seems to be more talkative when sharing with me her working experience, “ Also, I learnt the importance of being responsible for myself and my family,” she continued, “I know many women here at the bakery are now pregnant and have multiple children at home, but they don’t have husbands and thus have to carry on all the burdens, and that's too much for them.”

Thanks to the power of education, young generations of women like Yvonne are now becoming more self-aware, independent and ambitious. They might not have access to advanced technology and fancy books like people do in developed countries, but they are forward thinking and open to new concepts and ideas. They represent the growth of this country, and most importantly, the future.

The adventurous women - Heather, Julie & Meg

Heather, Julie and Meg are three American girls currently working at TWB.

Their hospitality, openness and inclusiveness made me feel at home during my stay in Kigali.

Heather and Julie both served in the Peace Corps in Rwanda for just over 2 years. Meg also has experience in the East Africa region, working in Uganda before joining TWB.

For them, living and working in Kigali is an adventurous and eye-opening experience, but also a tough one. Working for a young organization in a sensitive environment means there are frequent challenges. From visiting local institutions to resolve restriction issues, explaining the concept of healthy food to local customers, negotiating with bakery owners and fighting fiercely for women's rights, none of these tasks are easy to resolve. Yet they believe in the power of economic empowerment and education and so they are trying hard to drive changes day by day, step by step.

During my visit, I realized many other women like them come from all over the world and are determined to stay and work in Rwanda, rather than enjoy the more comfortable life in their own countries. Together they are creating values; they are making this country a better place. I admired their courage, faith and power.

Rwanda, a land of a thousand hills, a land of a thousand women.

Women in this country are different, in an array of aspects. But they are in many ways alike. I could feel this country’s history and the present embedded in them.

And from them, I could see the future of this country.

Our Global Bakery

If you are from St. Louis, you are all-too-familiar with the two most common questions asked of those who live and work here.

First, the unavoidable socio-geographic litmus test:  

Where did you go to high school?

And, if you are working in the world of philanthropy with a mission that reaches beyond our city and county lines, the inevitable:

But why aren’t you doing this work in St. Louis, especially when we have so many problems in our own backyard?

And it’s true. St. Louis is rife with challenges that intersect the lines of race, poverty, environment, and employment. From the Delmar Divide to the Bridgeton Landfill, we have our own slew of social inequities that disproportionately affect the poor and minority populations. Why, then, would—or should— someone support a bakery in East Africa to create jobs for women (and men) who they will most likely never meet?

I, for one, believe that the answer is simple:

Because we are all people.

Yes, it is undeniable that we live in changing times; yet, despite the rise of nationalism and the backlash of globalization, our shared humanity is, and will forever be, undeniable. Whether you live in Ferguson or in the far reaches of the African bush, we are all people. Suffering is suffering. Opportunity is opportunity. And love is love—compassion bound by empathy, an unstoppable force that cannot be contained by lines on a man-made map.

Philanthropy itself means love of humanity. And this year, St. Louis proved why it is said to be one of the most philanthropic cities in the United States. You, St. Louis, love well, deeply, without border or boundary. This year, you, our friends and our neighbors, single-handedly helped us open 2 bakeries in Rwanda, training 54 women and men. You asked us the familiar questions and the hard questions, all the while listening whole-heartedly, allowing the mission of The Women’s Bakery to capture your heart and imagination.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making our work possible—for helping us create jobs where they are desperately needed.

Thank you for believing in the power of people to change their own lives.

Thank you believing in the transformative power of bread.

And, perhaps most importantly, thank you for believing in us.