Leadership & Self-Confidence

As a social enterprise, TWB is an organization where our staff can learn and experience different skill-sets. One of the skills acquired at TWB is strong leadership. Leadership can look like a lot of different things, but I know for certain that it has improved my self-confidence, more than anything. Having a new perspective and attitude allows me to be positive, hold realistic views of myself, and to be mindful of our mission and women, no matter what happens. Too often, we imagine leadership to be one that improves the people around us, but leadership improves our own selves, too.

Leadership – and thus, self-confidence is not only something experienced by our staff. It’s happening with the women who work in our bakeries, as well.

Faith, who is a notable female leader within her community, has demonstrated immense leadership ability and growth while I have worked with her. She is our internal accountant at TWB, and helps us manage daily production and sales reporting. Recently, at a church event, Faith noted that it was at TWB where her leadership skills developed most. With a healthy and practical approach to decision-making, she is learning to lead our team of women effectively – and with confidence. Now, Faith has an expressed desire to even become a pastor within her community, something that could only be accomplished if she believed in herself. She does.

Leadership also involves the ability to believe in existing, innate skill-sets. One of our TWB employees, Jeanne D’Arc, is not able to read or write. Instead of letting this sideline her from opportunities to lead in her community, she is a visible advocate for herself, her family, and TWB where she lives. Inability has not stopped her – it’s propelled her.

Together, leadership and self-confidence are powerful. They are outcomes from a bakery that is producing bread – and also, a dynamite, women-led work-force. That’s #breadpower.

Leadership in the Community

A good leader is someone who influences people in positive ways.

Leaders should include everyone in decision making processes. I believe that higher education contributes to good leadership because it provides the kind of skills needed for developing respect, communication, and planning for communities. 

I wish and believe that in the future, the women that TWB have trained will have sufficient knowledge and skills to lead in their own communities. Part of the reason I enjoy my work with TWB is that in addition to enhancing local leadership capacity, I am able to also grow in my own leadership abilities. To promote leadership, TWB provides education in Goal Setting and Personal Growth, Teamwork, Customer Service and Communication, Decision Making, Work Safety, Right and Responsibilities at Work, Marketing Skills, and Financial Planning.

In my role with TWB, I have received more experiences focused on leadership growth than those I got from previous job experiences. I have been with TWB now for 10 months and because of the TWB women we work with, as well as TWB staff, I have been encouraged to learn new ways to lead different groups of people. 

Doors are opening for everyone now, and I look forward to my own personal leadership development in TWB as well as leadership growth among the bakeries with work with.

See, Think, Understand, Do.

“Some people see, think, and go…Others see, think, understand, and try to do something.”

These words were shared with myself and Markey over juice and beers at a local bar last week. We were meeting with a new friend—a soft spoken, thoughtful man who had passed by the Remera Bakery one day and was drawn in by his curiosity. As it turned out, he had previously worked with Peace Corps Volunteers in Rwanda. We immediately bonded over shared connections and visions for strengthening women and communities as he marveled at the unique, nutritious breads the women had made that morning.

We continued our conversation with him later that week at Champion Hotel, and as a mélange of live local and foreign music played in the background, I was struck once again by the way things continue to fall in place with TWB.

Here was yet another local champion—a Rwandan who had grown up in Uganda, sacrificed his own education for 6 years to allow his younger siblings to study, moved his family back to Rwanda, finally pursuing his own secondary and university education despite being years older than his classmates. He has since managed large programs throughout Rwanda, teaching youth, women and families entrepreneurship and savings skills. When he stumbled across The Women’s Bakery last week, he recognized the link between our bakery business program and the entrepreneurship/savings programs he has done before. TWB is a bridge—“They (groups) have a business mind. If you bring a practical skill, it can be a scaling up, an additional benefit to these groups.”

It is people like Amos who make TWB possible in practice. I sometimes struggle internally, wondering if we are doing the right things, moving in the right direction, putting into motion ideas and programs that will truly work and not just be another failed “foreign input.” But when I meet the Amos’ of Rwanda, I am inspired to keep moving forward—not because I am seeing, thinking, understanding and trying to do something, but because Rwandans are, too. 

Woman of the Week - Flavia

““Life is hard,” she remarks, “and so I seek to help them to build their livelihoods. Even if it’s a small difference.” ”

— Flavia

This past week, The Women's Bakery East Africa Team found ourselves in Kayonza - banana land, two hours East of Kigali (the capital).  We were in a red, stuffy room at a children’s educational development center that women's co-op leader, Flavia, had helped initiate and get off the ground. This, in addition, to the other roles she has played as a leader in the Kayonza community; the more I learned about Flavia, the more dynamic she appeared to be.

We started the conversation and my, how we talked. 

But don’t be fooled, we danced too. Of course. Always, always dancing in Rwanda.

The traditional Rwandan dancing came after our arrival and being introduced with the group of women Flavia helped to organize. Each women shared their name and their home village. Some came in beautiful fabrics found only in these corners of the world, and as each woman presented themselves, I remembered how each one has a story. Each one has a vision. How humbling and grateful I am to work for an organization that blends these stories together for change. .

We told them of what we do, of the training we have completed in other parts of Rwanda and Tanzania, and our vision for women, bread, and business. The women – attentive, excited, and numerous – listened and asked questions. We spoke of the materials for training needed, the kinds of lessons we teach, and the process of what happens after the training is completed. We explained that because of the informational nature of this meeting, our team wanted to better understand if the Kayonza cooperative was ready, compatible, and able to consider seriously entering the process for TWB training.

This is the general process we have as an organization currently– to begin a training, it is important to meet, discuss, share, and negotiate how it would work for each group. Every women’s group that we meet and partner with is different, and the question of commitment and feasibility is always on our minds.

As our team meets with different potential partners, groups, and women, we realize and recognize that the discussions and process are truly a building process. Empowerment, education, and transformational change don’t just happen overnight. It’s a relationship, it’s a discussion, and we are excited to begin those conversations with this specific group in Kayonza.

Moving forward will be dependent on numerous variables, largely funding, timing, and logistics, and yet, the opportunity persists; the need remains. It’s a gap in the world that we are driven by – women’s empowerment – and this group in Kayonza (along with Flavia) was a reminder that because the need remains, we are able to offer opportunity and choice as market-based solutions. That, we believe, is bread power.

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Our woman of the week is Flavia.

Flavia, a leader who is seeking, eyes opened wide, for access and opportunity for her women’s group. Demonstrating what strong advocacy looks like, the conversation for a potential group match would never have begun if she had not initiated the initially small, light-hearted discussion a few weeks back on a sun-soaked bus ride into Kigali.

As an organization, we appreciate women like Flavia, as these are the women who are changing, renewing, and innovating their communities – more and more, we hope with bread.

For the entirety of the story on Flavia, please visit Heather Newell's personal blog 'Ikundayou' at: https://ikundayou.wordpress.com/

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Flavia, pictured right in red & black dress, poses with her co-operative women, with Meg & Heather in Kayonza.