What Do We Do With the Data?

Behind the scenes at The Women’s Bakery, we have been working hard to collect data to help inform and grow our programming.

One of the main monitoring and evaluation tools we use is a baseline survey, which is taken at the beginning of training, six months after, and each year subsequently. It is lengthy and includes many questions that can help us identify changes in livelihood including topic areas regarding health, nutrition, income, education, expenditure, and self-confidence.

This baseline has been updated and enhanced six times this year with help and input from a variety of interns, friends, and professionals.

Over the course of the past two years, the data collected has helped us to improve our programming. For instance, we anticipated that women working in the bakery for six months or more would choose to use their income to pay for national health insurance, Mutuelle. We were wrong. We reacted by starting to include health insurance for the women and their families as a benefit to their employment at the bakery.

Additionally, we anticipated women would feel confident in having the right knowledge and increased spending power to purchase more nutritious food. We were wrong. We reacted by creating an eight-part curriculum series to be taught over a group lunches at the bakeries. One lesson per week for eight weeks.

We are learning from our mistakes and helping to grow our programs as we go. While data collection and analysis takes a long time, it is crucial for our success.

Growing Together

I have now worked for one year with The Women’s Bakery and it’s been a pleasure to work with this lovely team of professionals.

TWB is a good working environment where you can develop your skills and knowledge. As for me, I got to know many things through TWB. I would say for example, that I got management skills by working with different kinds of women with different personalities. This gave me knowledge in how to manage whatever comes my way.

Ever since I started working with TWB, I saw how TWB takes part in the growth of Rwanda by empowering women. So, I decided to develop my own working team spirit whereby whatever I think that can grow within TWB, I bring it to the table to be discussed. It is incredible that I may get to play my role in the growth of my country as well.

Travelling to different areas within the country and outside the country gave me an experience of how women work from all angles, not only Rwandan women but also women in varying backgrounds and environments. Visiting other sites and bakeries has been a big part of my job and it’s helped develop my skills in all aspects of my career and growth.

I am very glad to be part of TWB and will continue to think and do whatever it takes to make our organization grow faster. We are working to sustain profitable, successful bakeries and I am honored to do my part.