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.

Everyone Is A Teacher

It is always interesting to me, I think, how places are full of senses that are undeniably familiar and unchanging. Rwanda, for example, consistently smells and feels the same to me; the scent of burning wood and the heaviness of the air under the sun conjure memories, experiences, and the strange familiarity I have with Rwanda.

Last month, I exited a plane that ventured all the way from Amsterdam to Kigali, along with TWB’s Co-Founder & COO, Julie Greene. I’ve known Julie a long time – back to our Peace Corps Rwanda days – and so it was nice to return to this country by her side. We managed to get our bags (most of them) and head back to our East Africa team’s home in Kigali. I recognized these smells, feelings, and the day-to-day life of Rwanda right away; it’s good to be back, I thought (albeit very tiredly).

I couldn’t wait to get in our bakeries and see the work that has evolved within our business in Rwanda.

I last spent time in Rwanda with The Women’s Bakery in the fall of 2015.

Back then, we were just launching our first formal Rwanda-based training with a group of 15 women. Since our initial start-up days, TWB has launched a small bakery in the city with this group, along with the numerous other projects we have started around the country – just to the East, in Ndera, and also out in the Western part of the country, in a community called Bumba. TWB has grown and scaled, and it’s been an indescribable opportunity to be a part of.

Most of this growth, however, has happened while I have been working on TWB stateside. While I have been sharing about our work, managing communications and awareness efforts, and working to launch our pilot programming in Denver, TWB has become a well-known organization in Rwanda. And, our Remera, Kigali bakery has also become recognized in the neighborhood community, known for our “good bread” and “friendly service,” per some of our regular customer base, of whom I have had the fortunate chance to talk with. Being back in Rwanda, and with our team, has built a quick and mighty respect for what we, and for what the women in our program, have built.

I’m in awe of the tenacity and commitment that this kind of work requires. Small business development is hard anywhere, but the women we work with are making it happen.

Most profoundly, on a recent morning of baking, I felt an immense wave of gratitude as Liziki, a long-time baker with us, taught me how to properly master our Tresse, Croissant, and Sandwich shapes for our yeast bread product line. Sure, I know how to bake carrot or beet bread like the back of my hand, but these are new innovations in our product line that I previously did not know how to bake. Like a student willing to learn anything, I asked questions and shaped the dough repetitively so I could, with time, acquire this technical skill. I love learning from our bakers in Kigali; it reminds me that we are all teachers, just as we are all learners.

The women in our Kigali Bakery (Remera) have an incredible work-flow and understanding of the ins-and-outs of making a bakery work. Always, there are improvements to make, but what I appreciate most, thus far on this visit, is realizing that when you trust knowledge to have the power it can hold, often, it works.

Education is powerful. Empowerment is when this kind of education has an application, purpose, and leverage for opportunity.

I will be with our Rwanda team for the next month and I’m genuinely, authentically jazzed to learn more. Really, that’s what it is all about. Bread power.

So, Tell Me More

Last week, two TWB staff and Global Health Corps (GHC) alums, Aime and Meg, attended an East Africa GHC leadership summit in Nyamata, Rwanda to reconnect and share experiences with other co-fellows and staff from different parts of the world.

It was an opportunity for alums to share their achievements since they completed the GHC program. In doing so, everyone had to introduce themselves, where they were placed, their role during their fellowship year and what they are doing after the fellowship. 

When I (Aime) said that I work at The Women’s Bakery, another GHC alum approached me and said, “You work with The Women’s Bakery, so tell me more.”

This is a great inquiry that I always like to answer. It is an opportunity to showcase the uniqueness of The Women’s Bakery and what drives us in what we do.  We are promoting nutrition education, health and business education and above all we are availing locally sourced, nutritious and affordable breads.

This fellow continued, “So tell me more, how do you measure the impact?” 

An even greater question!

From the baseline surveys taken before training begins we learned that our trainee women/men couldn’t afford the health insurance coverage for the whole family or could only afford to cover the family members most vulnerable to sicknesses, like kids or pregnant mothers.

But, from our follow-up surveys taken 6 months after the conclusion of training, we can see that the training graduates who chose to work in bakeries are able to cover their health insurance, send kids to school and cover the basic needs.

That’s the impact.

“There is more to tell, come learn the Power of Bread!”

Let’s invest in education for a bright future!

Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world.

The Women’s Bakery uses education as a tool to empower women and to help them to become active citizens in the community.

Through our training program, women get knowledge on how to start successful businesses, mostly by focusing on a bakeries. We have trained different women’s groups throughout Rwanda, including Rutsiro, Nyagatare, Remera and Gasabo.

One of the groups is called Togetherness Cooperative, and they are soon launching their bakery in Ndera Sector, about 30 minutes east of Kigali. Donathile, one of the trainees, said that she considers this training as a lifetime opportunity, and she believes this will help her to change her life status from being temporarily employed to a person with permanent employment.

She says“if you educate a woman it means you educate a whole community.” This week, TWB is demonstrating just that through Jeanne D’Arc, a graduate from the first TWB training group in Rwanda.

Jeanne D’Arc is now facilitating TWB in baking sessions and in marketing breads in the neighborhood community with the current Ndera trainee group. Though the bakery in Ndera has yet to open, many people are already coming to buy and taste the breads. Jeanne D’Arc is helping trainees to improve their sales pitches and boost-up their confidence in selling.  

This is a great achievement we have in TWB, we don’t have to look for someone outside of our network to teach these skills- women already trained are the ones who are teaching others.

Together we can go very far. We believe in women’s potential. Women can change the world.