Partnering with Sophie & the U.S. Peace Corps

This month, after six weeks of intensive training, 17 women and 3 men successfully completed TWB’s business & bakery launch training in the Rutsiro District, Western Rwanda. 

With over 60 hours of baking practical and 60 additional hours of business oversight from TWBs comprehensive curriculum, the graduates of Mama Dunia’s Co-Op gained skills in recipe reading, baking, raw materials use, inventory, accounting, and sales.

Typically, TWB is approached by other non-profits, organizations, and groups for our training and business launch service package.

In this case, however, current Peace Corps Volunteer, Sophie Hart, connected TWB to this training group, and became the first Peace Corps Volunteer to help facilitate a partnership between TWB and the US Peace Corps. 

Peace Corps Volunteers serve communities around the world in various sectors (education, agriculture, etc.) for a total of 2 years. Having recently completed her service, she is well-versed in local community needs and has helped bring together a local co-op, the community, and TWB to make bakery launch a reality!

Following the launch of this new bakery, TWB spoke with Sophie about her experiences with the training program and how she believes the community bakery can provide both education and economic opportunity for all.  

TWB: Why were you motivated to connect your Peace Corps community with TWB?

Sophie Hart: I was motivated to connect the Bumba community with TWB because of the community center's desire to provide jobs for women and to improve nutrition in the area. I knew that the community was serious about having this bakery, and excited to improve the lives of the people working in it. Jackie, the president of the cooperative, is also one of my closest friends in my community. I know her to be a responsible, empathetic woman who is passionate about this project.

TWB: How do you envision the launch of a bakery with the Mama Dunia Co-Op impacting the community at large?

Sophie Hart: I see the launch of this bakery as having a very positive impact on the community at large. People are interested in having bread, and I believe they will become even more enthusiastic over time as they learn about the nutritious elements of the bread coming from the Dunia bakery. Through providing employment for women, this project
will help improve the lives of their families.

TWB: Which part of the training did you enjoy the most? Did anything surprise you?

Sophie Hart: I enjoyed the hands on baking training the most. It was fun to see everyone getting a chance to participate and learn experientially.

TWB: Share some of the most important learnings you have had in working for economic opportunity with women.

Sophie Hart: I think one of the most important things I've learned in working for economic opportunity with women is that when women are provided with the opportunities to learn and
develop new skills, they are eager and excited to use them. Women are statistically more likely than men to spend money earned on improving the lives of their children, so
investing in women is not only an important tool of empowerment in their lives, but also an investment in the future of our world.

Thanks to Sophie – and the U.S. Peace Corps – for helping both men and women in Western Rwanda access education and employment with TWB. That’s real bread power. You can learn more by reading our October Newsletter here. 

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.