Cooperative Women

A cooperative, in the traditional sense, is nothing other than people with common goals, with a certain amount of resources, coming together to form and develop a working synergy so those goals can be achieved.

Gathering together collectively in this manner is important to the work of The Women’s Bakery due to the fact that it is not easy to collaborate, grow, and develop in isolation or at the individual level.

At the bakery, women’s capabilities and powers are raised to grow and work together so credibility of our product and business is built.

Though, the cooperative model is something that our groups of women are used to – developing this into a business model takes time, but it’s happening. My internship was largely about marketing, however, I was able to continue to learn and experience the business model first-hand. 

With various capacities, specifically at the Remera Bakery, the women are creating competitive advantages to the working environment that allow for greater efficiency and stream-lined daily operations. These are workflows that groups of women are trained in, and then experience further development upon extending time within the bakery.

My time with TWB has been full of joy, learning, and encouragement with the TWB team and women within the bakery. There are a lot of challenges when it comes to introducing a new product to customers, which was the focus of my internship, but what is amazing is that all our women have faced it and remained persistent in any difficulty faced. I have learned about this kind of business acumen and how to work together cooperatively, and still in the business context.

This is in fact, cooperation, and real bread power.

Together we rise.

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.

Defying Cultural Boundaries

A wood-carven map of Rwanda sits against the curved white shelf in my office. Wistfully, and perhaps more in wonder, I find myself staring at the map sometimes – in between the lists of “to do’s” of grant applications, communications, and advocacy efforts for The Women’s Bakery.

The map is full of intricate etches; boundaries within the country of Rwanda are lined and marked – Kamonyi, Karongi, Gicumbi, along with the 27 other districts. I purchased this piece of art in the capital of Rwanda, Kigali, and I think I paid around $5. With the amount of required skill to create something so beautiful, I know it is worth so much more.

The boundaries may indicate a political designation, but as the work of TWB engages us further with different aspects of culture, I realize more and more that boundaries are quite fluid – particularly in the realm of international development and women.

In Rwanda, we work with women from all different parts of the country. They might speak the same language, but their experiences in motherhood, in families, in work, and in education all vary. A “one narrative” story doesn’t exist with our women’s groups, nor would we expect it to.

In Denver, I recently attended a Rwandan-Burundian wedding with over 300 guests. The guests, however, were all from countries in East Africa. The complexities of boundaries were instantaneously apparent: Rwandans raised in Tanzania; Burundians raised in Congo; Congolese raised in Rwanda.

Between cold fanta and traditional dancing, I met a young, fiery woman who is soon to receive her degree in international business. A Burundian, she is preparing to launch a social enterprise in her home country to provide business opportunity for women. She listened intently as I told her about TWB’s work in East Africa – about our small, mighty team of both Rwandans and Americans committed to developing a business model fueled by Rwandan women – and she yelped with joy. “It is absolutely amazing,” she said, “to meet individuals committed to moving past cultural lines to help others. Americans care, Burundians care….we can all care about work that matters.”

I smiled exuberantly. I thought of my map of Rwanda. I thought of how incredible it is that in working across cultures, we can all participate in mobilizing solutions – whether it’s TWB women, our supporters, or our teachers. We can all do something. For this, there is no boundary.