Women in Change

What an amazing opportunity to see our country rise and make changes in every angle of its sectors, whether government, private, or public.

My Rwanda is one of the countries that supports women and gives women more chances and opportunities to grow. Rwanda continues to encourage women to create more ideas and to seek support for these ideas.

Because Rwanda and its government cannot not reach every woman in the country, the private sectors are welcomed to join them and work hand in hand. Without collaboration in this capacity, Rwanda would not be where it is today.

Our one and only THE WOMEN’S BAKERY has established itself in Rwanda and has engaged in the sector of women’s empowerment. Our business is doing great things as it is impacting women’s life and the entire community. Fighting against malnutrition and creating sources of income for these women has been one of the most important women’s empowerment activities and it is working.

In addition to baking skillsets, The Women’s Bakery teaches women their rights, how to advocate for them, where to go for help, and ultimately, how to claim their rights. TWB also creates confidence in these women (especially as rights are shared and exercised), which can reduce violence within the families and even in the community.

We thank the private sector and our Government of Rwanda for understanding the value of a woman and to promote equal opportunity with men. We work and get paid so we have source of income. We take good care of our family because we know the value of our family and we have capacity to look after them. To all in Rwanda that has welcomed our business, thank you from THE WOMEN’S BAKERY IN RWANDA.

#breadpower

Education as Access & Power

At TWB, educational programming and training is at the forefront of our model. We don’t just employ any woman in our bakeries but rather those who have completed our intensive 200+ hour (now accredited) technical and vocational educational training program.

Education is access: access to a better income, a better job, a better life but most importantly, access to choices. The women we train, support and employ have a choice, every day, to come to work at TWB. To (oftentimes) wake up before the sun and work well into the afternoon, creating unique, healthy products for their communities, pushing through the lows of business and celebrating the highs. Education is power.

And you know what else is powerful? Witnessing our women transform from students to teachers and empowering a new group of women.

Enter Liziki. This woman is the definition of a rockstar. She has been with TWB since the beginning (2015) and works as a professional baker at the Kigali Flagship. She can bust out an order of 300+ sweet potato rolls in a morning, keep everyone on track to meet production goals and is just an amazing human being, mother, and friend. When our newest bakery, Gicumbi, was struggling with workflows, I had an idea: what if Liziki spent a few days with our newest employees and taught them her tips and tricks? The team at TWB has been experimenting with sending our more experienced women to train new, less experienced groups and the results had been positive.  

Liziki spent three full days at our Gicumbi bakery leading, teaching and demonstrating. It was inspiring to see her in her element and to see how much respect the Gicumbi women had for her. From my corner office, I could overhear them asking her questions from when to rotate trays in the oven, to what the ideal rising time was, to how to work faster. Prior to Liziki’s arrival, the production team has been finishing baking around 2PM, which caused them to miss market/daylight sales opportunities. After one day of Liziki’s expertise, they were cranking out 15 kilograms of bread before noon! Not only was she empowering the women, she was empowered as, now, a trainer.

As if I wasn’t already beaming with pride, for Liziki and our Gicumbi group, on her last day, Liziki gave a powerful speech to the women. Her exact words were,

“Sometimes the Kigali group, we had to wake up early and come to work and sometimes we stayed late but it didn’t matter because we we’re so proud of what we were doing and we wanted to achieve something in our lives. We (the Kigali group) are where we are now because of TWB and our hard work. Some days will be hard but you must have confidence, work hard, never give up and be proud of what you are doing. This is how you will grow and achieve more.”

I couldn’t stop beaming (crying) with pride and joy: for Liziki, for our Kigali women, for our Gicumbi women, for ALL the women TWB has the privilege of working with and for our work-our gritty, innovative and dedicated work. It truly is impacting lives and that is #breadpower.

Bread Power in Texas

written by former TWB A&M Co-Chair, Madison Jaco

For the 2017-18 school year, I had the privilege of getting to work alongside some badass women for badass women. The past year came with both bitter failures and oh-so-sweet successes, and on the whole, I really feel like I could see TWB A&M blossoming into something more than friends gathering and speaking about empowerment; we were learning, teaching, and truly understanding what it means to empower others and our place within The Women’s Bakery (TWB) model.

When we started the Fall Semester, we were, and I’m just being honest, disappointed by turnout.  We were looking at around half of the members we had the year prior, and Emma and I were a little scared.  However, once we got into the swing of things, we really began to fathom what we were looking at: a group, albeit small, of humans insanely passionate about equality, education, and empowerment of others.  Where we lacked in numbers, we overflowed in determination. 

Over the summer, our officer team had set a goal to raise $1,000 for the entire year, so we challenged our organization of 22 students to each raise $50 over the Thanksgiving Break as our Giving Tuesday fundraiser.  If you’re not a fan of mental math, fulfilling that would have been $1,100 and set us over our original goal.  We didn’t anticipate every person would pull through (let’s be realistic) but for anyone who lacked a dollar, someone else showed up to cover for them.  By the end of our fundraising efforts, TWB A&M had raised just over $1,000 in cash and online donations, and even after we had finished collecting as an organization, people continued to donate directly to TWB.

In the Spring Semester, we were planning the second annual RISE, a larger event for the community to learn about TWB and donate to our scholarship.  We screened Zaza Rising and set up a panel of students (including our resident powerhouse Co-Chair Emma Nelson) and professors alike to discuss the film, TWB, and how students at A&M can empower women both here and across the globe.  Our room fit 80 people as we weren’t expecting more than about 60 to attend, but as people began filing in, the room filled quickly, leaving those who came in at the start of the film standing in the back.  Students asked provocative questions about women’s health and education in Rwanda, the correlation between sex education and autonomy, and what TWB A&M was really doing to help boost women in East Africa.  Excited by what the panel had to say (and probably slightly motivated by the smell of carrot bread), most people contributed to our scholarship through donations and bread and merchandise purchases.

Through all of our fundraising, bread baking, profit shares, and generous donations by local Aggie-affiliated groups, TWB A&M raised $2,000 (double our goal!), which will go directly into our scholarship through TWB and fully fund two women through the trainings.

We were elated with the outcome of our second year here on campus, and hopeful that the student population understands more completely what The Women’s Bakery at Texas A&M means to us, to our members, to the core group at TWB HQ, and, most importantly, to the women who are defining #BreadPower in East Africa each day.

The Road Less Traveled

Written by TWB's Development Intern, Nichole Crust. 

I love women, baking, and entrepreneurship so when I was looking for an internship and found out about The Women’s Bakery (TWB) the organization seemed like a natural fit. I dug a bit deeper into their founders and model and was honestly skeptical. I wondered what a few white girls without business and baking experience could possibly have to teach Rwanda about health and economic development let alone baking?

The answer surprised me.

I’m so excited to be interning for The Women’s Bakery this summer. My internship started with a two-week trip to Rwanda. I landed in Kigali early on Monday and hit the ground running. Noel, the Country Director graciously picked me up from airport and whisked me away to TWB’s headquarters to meet the Rwanda team and learn more about TWB’s work by attending the team’s weekly meeting.

From my first interactions with the team, their drive and determination to intentionally and holistically impact the lives of women and their families was obvious. My first encounter was a conversation about fire wood and oven temperatures. The group was passionately discussing the best solutions to address problems with oven temperatures, costs of fire wood, lack of fire wood, and alternative fuel sources for their ovens. It seemed like a trivial issue, but it was complex and complicated.

TWB’s administration (which is the most positive and proactive administration I have encountered) approached the task of finding a solution with a holistic approach that not only considered the bottom line for TWB’s budget, but also considered the overall health and well-being of the bakery staff. It was beautiful to witness this team so naturally and intentionally solve this problem in a way the considered the greater good.

I saw this style of administration and problem solving played out again and again as a I visited each of the TWB’s bakeries. At TWB’s Kagina bakery I was struck by the forthcoming way an internal conflict was approached. A new employee who was also new to the city and a new job as a baker in a new organization was navigating the social relationships with other women bakers.

Instead of the issue being ignored, it was acknowledged and a conversation that lead led to a real understanding of each other was facilitated. Understanding the important role of food in problem solving, the women were treated to “tea” to continue to resolve the issue.

The work of TWB is not easy and its approach is on the road less traveled. However, TWB’s methods are effective and working to create systemic sustainable impact in the lives of its employees and their families.

From Scratch: Our Flagship Story

Building something from scratch—now there’s a concept we know well at The Women’s Bakery. From our founders who built our Bakery in A Box model from the ground up, to the women in each of our bakery locations around East Africa that bake highly nutritious bread from locally sourced ingredients: we build things from scratch daily. It’s part of our culture: we push, strive, overcome and accomplish in order to further our mission of empowering women through business and education.

We are strong women baking bread... and building financial models, breaking into new markets, recipe testing, operating, organizing, and training. The list is endless.

Our most recent building project, quite literally, has been our effort to create a new Flagship Bakery: a space to propel our brand, display the ultimate success of our model, and sell nutritious bread. The Women’s Bakery Flagship is an inviting environment for Kigali, Rwanda customers to enjoy, interact and collaborate in while learning about and supporting our social enterprise model. It’s a space with higher production capacity to meet growing market demands, a hub for TWB product and marketing innovation, a centralized training center for future TWB programs, a single office location for cohesion as a bakery and organization.

It’s a model for TWB bakeries everywhere.

Building something from scratch takes work. It takes grit. It takes passion and endurance. But those are things that the staff at The Women’s Bakery embodies well. It has been an inspiration to see everyone put their hands to the challenging task of doing something we’ve never done before. But we’re doing it. We’re building it up from scratch: design, processes, systems, products. And it’s going to be AWESOME. It’s going to showcase #breadpower and we cannot wait to share it with you.

Coming soon, The Women’s Bakery Flagship.

Happiness Through Bread

Written by Francoise Umutoniwase, Marketing Intern in Kigali

At The Women’s Bakery, a byproduct of our work that I have seen is a word that though commonly used, still holds a lot of meaning.

Happiness.

Happiness comes when you feel satisfied and fulfilled.

How, you may ask, does TWB’s work enable this?

I’m delighted to share.

First, we make bread with local ingredients. There is no need to import raw materials. Because of this, we are creating a product that suppliers and customers alike are pleased with – it is locally sourced, and locally supplied. This generates a greater interest in what we do – ultimately spreading more and more #breadpower.

Second, we make highly nutritious bread (different from what is typically offered on the market) whereby the communities in which we work are excited (and interested) to consume our products. Often, I have seen many of our consumers become more enthused as we have developed more unique products. An example of this has been when we first introduced pretzels to our product line – our customers loved them and it became something for them to look forward to.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, our work environment exudes a culture of happiness. In integrating education, health, and employment together, we are able to work with a powerful group of women who are earning an income to make an impact in their life. Thus, our bakery is more than just a bakery – it’s a place where women come and do good, powerful work.

It’s not easy every day. The work can be difficult and the challenges that our women face are complex and real.

However, the commitment we have is the strength of The Women’s Bakery.

This generates bread power, where bread can effect positive changes in the lives of many. I see happiness in many of the aspects of our work – even with the challenges – and that continues to motivate me each and every day.

Together we rise.

Slice of Hope: St. Louis, MO

On Tuesday, 90 St. Louisians gathered to celebrate this year’s success and learn more about our plans for 2018.  Every member of The Women’s Bakery family is special and on Tuesday we had the opportunity to offer our thanks to a group of individuals who have supported our work since it was a mere idea.   

Many of the attendees have known me since I was a child. Which, lucky for them (and me), a lot has changed since then – namely that I have grown into my height and wear a haircut that better suits my desired appearance now. Yet, even in my hay-day of awkward, these St. Louisians have stood by me and routed me on. And Tuesday was no exception. 90 people filled the room because they are interested in The Women’s Bakery and wanted to listen to us and learn more about our work.

It is a pleasure always to present The Women’s Bakery: to share with others why we do the work that we do. But Tuesday as particularly special because I was joined by three of my team members – three powerhouse women who have helped to build and shape The Women’s Bakery, and who shared more about our work from (mostly) their perspectives.

It was inspiring for me to watch Natalie, Heather and Meg as they presented. To listen to what they said and how they said it; to think about why they put emphasis on certain points, such as renewing their commitment to The Women’s Bakery, valuing the transference of a vocational education, and striving for even larger leaps of impact for our women in Rwanda. But it was also inspiring for me to watch their audience: The St. Louisians whom I’ve known forever were now seeing proof that The Women’s Bakery is graduating from project to a viable business concept.

I am excited for 2018. It will be a tough and an expensive year. Tough because we have undergone a major transformation this year – owning all of the bakeries we build – and expensive because this means our operating budget has now doubled because of it. But, we have chosen the pivot because we want to ensure that our mission to educate, employ and empower women remains our grounding and guiding objective. And, as this Tuesday so beautifully demonstrated, we are heartened by the rallying of our supporters who see the value in women having the opportunity to learn through us, to work with us, and to transform their own lives alongside us. 

Twists That Make Change

“Pretals, pretals!”

That’s what the women in Remera call them: the pretzels.

This strange and new product that has opened so many doors and pushed us further down the road towards profitability was foreign to the women at our Kigali bakery just a few months ago. Now, they are experts at crafting and baking this special offering.

At The Women’s Bakery, we know that our bread is more than just a food product. It is a livelihood. It represents empowerment, it can bring change. Every muffin, honey tresse, and loaf of sweet potato bread adds to a movement of strong women baking bread. These strong women baking at Remera now have a new product: pretzels. As our highest profit margin product, these pretzels are popping up in cafes and businesses all over Kigali. They have become a vehicle through which the city is learning more about #breadpower. Even private clients are clamoring to get our pretzels at their house party, office meeting, or public event.

And, the women of Remera bakery are seeing the impact their bread can have in a whole new way.

I have had the privilege of being part of testing the recipe, training the women and now bringing this unique product to market. It has been incredible to watch. We have orders daily for this special piece of bread that is continuing TWB’s goal of creating sustainable jobs and enabling profitable bakeries. These twisty bits of salt, herb or cinnamon sugar goodness are not only delicious, they are powerful and they are just one part of the exciting operations that are paving our path for continued success.

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.

From Pottery to Bakery

This month, TWB, together with AsOne, started a bakery training in Kagina, Kamonyi district in the South of Rwanda. The group is composed of 5 women all living in the same neighborhood.

This week, our trainer on the site took some time to sit with one of the trainees, Hadidja Esperance, and hear from her what it feels like to be in this training.

Hadidja, together with other women in this group, used to gain their living through pottery. Life was hard for her and her family to meet their basic needs, but now that she has joined this training she hopes that her life is going to change.

She said, “You can’t feel how I feel to be doing baking as a business, I used to do pottery but with no gains, but now I’m baking and eating nutritious breads; it’s so great.”

She continued by explaining that she used make so many vases and then wait for a long time for people to come and buy them, but now she is happy that she will make breads that are needed in the community and people will eat them right after being baked.  

“My children will eat breads and improve their health, I will make money out of breads and my whole community will benefit… but when I was doing pottery, it was just survival, not living,” she continued.

The story of Hadidja is very much in common with most of the women TWB is working with. Many of them used to be street vendors and worked for daily surviving with no hope for tomorrow. They never used to make savings for future needs like health insurance or children’s school fees. For TWB, as a social enterprise, we feel that those people are most in need of our program and we have seen a great impact over the last two years.

We believe that one can advance from street vending to supermarket supplier and storefront management.  And as Hadidja says, one can come from pottery to bakery.

#Breadislifechanging

Historical note: Potters in Rwanda tend to be among the poorest and most vulnerable—most potters belong to the Twa tribe, which makes up less than 1% of the Rwandan population and which has historically been marginalized. The craft of pottery, while highly respected in many western societies, does not necessarily hold the same esteem in Rwanda.

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.

TWB A&M & "Rise"

On April 10-11, 2017, The Women’s Bakery Texas A&M hosted our first event on campus, “Rise.”

The Women’s Bakery Texas A&M is the first campus chapter for The Women’s Bakery. Dedicated to educating students about women’s empowerment, The Women’s Bakery Texas A&M is made up of 50 students with a passion for social enterprise and change.

Over the past semester, our organization has been working tirelessly to host a program that would have wide impact on our university. I am happy to report that we accomplished and exceeded our expectations.

On the first night of “Rise,” we screened the movie “Girl Rising,” a documentary which details the lives of nine girls in developing countries and their quest for an education. 

The next evening, we facilitated open dialogue with the same attendees. The conversation was very interesting because everyone had been touched in some way by the stories of the girls in the film. Then, we heard from speakers over a wide range of topics.

The Women’s Bakery’s very own Heather Newell spoke about TWB and ways that we could get involved. Janet Marcantonio, TWBAM’s faculty advisor, spoke on her time with the Peace Corps. Finally, Dr. Henry Musoma, of the Mays Business School at Texas A&M, spoke about the influential women in his life and the way that women positively impact society today.

At one point in his presentation, Dr. Musoma asked his daughter to come up to the front. We were excited to listen to what she had to say, as she had attended the film screening the evening before. When asked about how the film impacted her life, Dr. Musoma’s 11-year-old daughter told our audience that it “changed her life.” She went on to speak about the privilege that we have as university students, and how we need to appreciate what we have been given.

As a campus engagement officer of TWBAM, I can confidently say that we accomplished our mission. We were able to touch the lives of several community members, including an eleven-year-old girl, and inspire them to make a difference in the world around us. I’ve seen the impact that The Women’s Bakery has had in the last two semesters at Texas A&M. Our membership continues to grow as people hear the message and mission of this organization.

At Texas A&M University, we value service in every aspect of what we do. It is not a surprise that TWBAM has been well received given the nature of the organization. What has been a surprise however, is seeing the life change that has taken place in people who have heard our message. I have had the opportunity to personally witness student’s eyes light up when they hear about the wonderful things that The Women’s Bakery is able to do in Rwanda and Tanzania.

I am proud to be involved with an organization that is truly changing the world. With one major event in the books, I cannot wait to see where TWBAM goes in the future.

About the Author: Ashlie James is a junior, agriculture communications and journalism major from The Woodlands, TX. She is also a Campus Engagement Officer for The Women’s Bakery Texas A&M.

Rise

Last week, I had the wonderful opportunity to spend some time in the middle of College Station, Texas with a whole lot of mid-Spring Texas heat.

I was down South to join The Women’s Bakery Chapter Group at A&M – TWB A&M – for a campus-wide awareness event called “Rise.” The concept was dreamed up over a year ago by Alayna Davis, the Chair & President of the Chapter, and intern for TWB. Alayna is helping us to build a national network of chapter groups – the first one being at Texas A&M.

The event was designed to bolster awareness of the chapter group, and the work of TWB. Additionally, the beautifully-made and powerful documentary “Girl Rising” was screened as a way to inform attendees about the plights for girls and education around the world, a cause very near and dear to my heart.

Following the screening, we hosted a TWB informational, where I explained the Bakery in the Box Model and the impact of our work in East Africa. I fielded lots of questions from curious students, teachers, and community members. Perhaps more profoundly, we also engaged in conversations about the importance of locally-driven work, and why sustainability depends on it.

After I spoke about TWB, the chapter group hosted two other speakers, Dr. Janet Marcantonio, and Dr. Henry Musoma, both professors and connections to A&M’s business and international programs. Dr. Marcantonio shared pictures from her Peace Corps Service in Gabon, and Dr. Musoma shared stories about growing up in Southern Africa, emphasizing the power that storytelling holds for all of us. He left the audience with this thought, “stories can liberate us…they can also oppress us. Be the one to tell you story.”

Following the event, humbled and amazed at the energy for TWB at the school, I received an email from an A&M student who had come to learn about The Women’s Bakery.

She wrote in her email,

“...the women involved in with TWB remind me a lot of my mother, who's main goal was to provide for her family. I love to see empowered women doing good, not only for their families, but for the good of their communities. I feel that TWB has given these women a network, a personal community of their own where they can rely on each other and feel powerful being women, I am all for that…I believe everyone deserves the opportunity to feel empowered, and that is why I love what TWB stands for.”

Now, that, my friends, is bread power.

Cycling for Change

On March 11, over 30 cyclists set off from Byumba in Northern Rwanda on a 70km bike ride to Rwanda’s capital city Kigali.

Aside from the oddity of seeing so many amateur cyclists flying down the narrow s-curve roads at once, the group stood out because almost every rider was female. In Rwanda, this is not typical. Though some girls do learn to ride bicycles as children and there are some communities where it is less unusual to spot a woman pedaling a bike, the general trend is that older girls and women do not ride bikes. This is based on myths surrounding the ill health effects cycling has on a woman and stereotypes about the sex drive of girls/women who ride bikes.

The ride was hosted by current Peace Corps Volunteers as part of the Let Girls Ride Campaign, and was meant to challenge these ideas – not only through the visual of 30+ women rode proudly throughout the countryside, but also through education. The group took three stops in community centers to teach lessons on girls’ empowerment, gender equality, and challenging myths and stereotypes about women cycling.

The Women’s Bakery was honored to participate in this event, as well as to be chosen as the recipient of funds raised during the Let Girls Ride Campaign. Connecting bicycling directly with our work in Rwanda, The Women’s Bakery has long dreamed of teaching our women in the bakery to ride bicycles which they can then use for more efficient bread deliveries.

Currently, most deliveries are made on foot and the bread is carried by hand in baskets or buckets. With a bicycle and custom designed bread box attached to the back, more bread can be delivered faster and further!

In the coming weeks, the Remera Bakery group will start bicycling lessons on the new delivery bike that was given to them at the end of the Let Girls Ride event. Our hope is that over time some of the women will embrace cycling, empowering themselves, growing their business, and challenging stereotypes.

#letgirlsride #cyclingforchange #womenonbikes #breadbike

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.

Romania Trip

What does Romania have in common with Rwanda?

For one: Romania also has bakeries!

One bakery in particular, MamaPan Bakery, is tackling social challenges with a similar model to The Women’s Bakery.

In December Julie and Meg made a stop in Bucharest, Romania on their way home to the U.S. for the holidays. This trip was initiated thanks to Livia, Director of Programs for MamaPan Bakery, who proposed we visit.

MamaPan Bakery started as an initiative under a non-profit organization, CPE (Partnership for Equality), as an income generating mechanism for the women working in the bakery and a revenue stream for the non-profit itself.

It was uncanny to note how similar MamaPan and The Women’s Bakery in Remera (Rwanda) were. Both organizations have been running for about a year and a half, both employ eight women, both are nearly at profitability, both strive for more healthful bread options, and both are slowly changing the lives of the women who work in the bakeries. While we were there, Livia told us that just that week one of the women who works in the bakery was finally able to get heating in her home. These are the small improvements in livelihood that make a huge difference for the women and their families.

The most important part of our trip was the development of new friendships with a group of women that believe in the same kind of change we believe in. We now know two groups of women in entirely different places working towards the same goals. We can now be each other’s mentors share ideas, consult when the challenges seem great, and help each other build a community of strong women baking bread.

Barriers to Accessing Healthcare in Rwanda

Over the past twenty years Rwanda has seen exceptional improvements in health outcomes. They have witnessed a decrease in the unmet need for family planning, a decrease in the prevalence of HIV, and an increase in access to preventive services such as mosquito nets.

One of the major factors that has contributed to these improvements has been a generous national budget designated to healthcare expenditure (including subsidization of the national health scheme, Mutuelle). In Rwanda in 2015/2016 the percent of the national budget allocated to healthcare was 10.2% compared to Uganda 5.3% and Kenya 4% in the same period (http://www.eannaso.org/resources/reports/33-eannaso-2015-eac-health-financing-profile/file). By investing in the health of its citizens, Rwanda is increasing the intellectual capacity, productivity, and economic success of the country.

However, one of the opportunities many TWB women still lack IS access to health insurance. Most women who start our training program are not insured even though Mutuelle is designed to be affordable based on family income. This is because many barriers still exist in accessing Mutuelle, including lack of knowledge about the plan, documentation for registration, and inability to save money.

The Women’s Bakery hopes to be the missing link that will connect families to Mutuelle services. This month the eight women working at our Remera bakery have been signing their families up for the health insurance plan with the help of our Operations Manager, Yvonne. Yvonne has helped to educate, collect proper documentation, and develop personal budgets to make health insurance a reality.

In total eight women, four husbands, and thirty children will be registered for national healthcare. Thank you to all of our supporters who believe it what we do, the women we work with, and the families and communities they support. We couldn’t do it without you.

"If You Look, You Will Go Far"

“If you look far you will go far”

As a woman who has experienced empowerment myself, working with women who need to be empowered is my dream. The opportunity to work with The Women’s Bakery in Rwanda has been truly incredible, and I am able to take part in my dream job..

In the course of working as the Bakery Operations Manager at the TWB bakery in Remera, Kigali, I have been questioning how I could contribute more to grow the ability of TWB women.

One day, when we were in a meeting, I came up with an idea. I asked the women what they thought of taking 200 FRW ($0.26) per woman out of their daily salaries for savings.

They said, “That’s a good idea, why not let’s do it!”

They have already started to save money, which will help them to pay for Mutuelle, the national health insurance, for next year (TWB has already ensured the women all have health insurance for themselves and their families for the current year) and which can also help them to grow their business in the coming year.

This process to create a savings plan is one of my most valued experiences from the past eight months with TWB. On the part of the women, they have improved life for their families, they feel independent, and their new skill sets are evidence of good future prospects.

Many women have a dream of seeing their bakery grow and to eventually be well-known everywhere. I am excited to be part of TWB Rwanda and I will keep learning a lot about our great work, and learn more in my position as Bakery Operations Manager to further grow the Remera Bakery.

Our women are so committed - let's give them our hands, and together we will rise. 

Giving Dough: Giving Tuesday 2016

Baking bread requires patience, attention, and detail. Yet, it’s also wonderfully simple. As one of our team members, Natalie, has said,

Bread is simple. Simple is powerful. When you come to fully understand how much the act of making and selling bread can effect change, it's impossible not to become a champion of The Women's Bakery.

The beautiful thing about bread is that is also does not – and should not – need to be prepared alone. Baking bread ignites opportunity and community.

That’s where you come in.

Following the intense commercialization and consumerism of times likes “Black Friday” it is easy to become distracted from what really matters. Giving Tuesday offers an alternative to buying things and instead encourages investing in people all over the world.

For The Women’s Bakery, Giving Tuesday gives us a chance to share our story in East Africa, to inspire others, and grow our TWB family.

Bread is simple – and for us, that’s how we see our part in changing the world.

By supporting The Women’s Bakery, on Giving Tuesday, and throughout the month of December, TWB will be able to train more women in business and baking skills, generate more income for previously unemployed individuals, and provide added protein to more community diets. In places where nutrition, education, and jobs are scarce, TWB teaches women to build businesses that feed communities and support families. 

This year, we aim to raise $25,000 on Giving Tuesday to support our Bakery in a Box Model. Simply put, $25,000 enables us to partner with, train, support, and launch a bakery with a group of 15-20 women and men.

To help us reach this goal, you can visit our donation page, spread the word, and share our story with your friends and family. Please use our hashtags for this campaign and tag @womensbakery in your posts. Your help matters; it ensures that everyone has access to opportunity. At The Women’s Bakery, that’s the most important part of our work.

In the first three months of operations, the Remera bakery (launched in June of 2016) is selling an average of 596 small breads per week, resulting in an average of 2,980 additional grams of protein on the market each week. In a country like Rwanda where 40% of children are under-nourished, this is a big deal.

100% of these TWB bakery employees are making an income. 100% are baking bread in their home. 100% have national health insurance. 100% report being able to train others in skills they learned in the TWB training program. Considering that prior to our training program only 1 out of the 8 women reported income, it’s clear our program delivers high-level, sustainable impact.

Success is evident. Join us.

#breadpower #togetherwerise #givingdough #bakebreadtogether

Bread, Hands & Flying Money!

This week, TWB is launching a new training to the East of our Kigali headquarters in an area called Ndera. As our team prepares for a new group of trainees, classroom sessions, and baking practice, we've reflected on the recent successes of our previous training group, in Western Rwanda. 

One of the trainees in the rural west noted, "Even here, we eat breads," and it couldn't be more true. 

Rutsiro District, the location of the training group, held a 3-day Expo in September and our team of TWB trainers and Mama Dunia co-op members (who had been in training for several weeks) rose to the challenge. Baking as many banana-peanut, carrot, and beet muffins as we could, we sold over 900 breads!

No matter how much we baked, we simply couldn't keep up with the demand! 

At the expo, people crowded around our stand by the dozens - bread and hands and money went flying! The response was overwhelmingly positive, despite these nutritious muffins being completely new and unfamiliar to the rural customers. 

At the end of the day, TWB & Mama Dunia came in an astounding 3rd place for the entire event. People's choice? Beet bread! 

Our model for providing urban and rural women with education, jobs, and community-wide access to affordable, nutritious breads is working, and we couldn't be more excited. As we continue to expand throughout Rwanda, the success of each previous bakery group will also enhance the success of those that follow. Our training program gets better with each delivery, our recipe collection expands, and our brand gains greater visibility and recognition. 

As we continue with the first week of training in Ndera, Eastern Rwanda, we will be applying everything we learned from the previous groups. Here's to another group of strong, powerful women who bake delicious bread!