Education & Nutrition are the Keys to Life
We will keep nutrition at the core of what we do so that through education and nutrition, healthy opportunities can abound.
The Women’s Bakery (TWB) is a social enterprise that empowers women through education and business. A key component of our work is providing opportunities for knowledge gain, especially around core topics like health and nutrition. However, advocating for nutrition opportunities within the home and the community is a process.
TWB first promotes nutrition by teaching women in Rwanda about the value of the using natural ingredients, such as carrot, pumpkin, and banana. Ultimately, these ingredients are sourced in our bread products so that the community-at-large can access them.
TWB also aims to address malnutrition through our Nutrition Extension Program, where women can receive additional trainings on specialty health topics, like breastfeeding or child development. TWB assesses the need for health education by conducting surveys and data follow-ups in the sites where we have worked. If there are gaps in knowledge, topics, or nutrition-specific issues, we can work to integrate those ideas into the curriculum.
Through reception of feedback we have been able to understand that whenever a woman is educated, then the whole family has the potential to receive this education, too.
The idea of a country without high rates of malnutrition is desirable for us and this is what we are constantly striving for.
We will keep on educating women so that families can be educated. We will keep nutrition at the core of what we do so that through education and nutrition, healthy opportunities can abound.
That’s bread power.
Bread in the Hills
Committed to combating malnutrition, team TWB is expanding training outside of Kigali and venturing into new, rural communities in the Western Province of Rwanda.
As the first TWB Rwanda training group continues to learn and grow the business in Kigali, our team has been planning for our next training cohort in Rutsiro District, a cool four hour drive from Kigali. Set atop high terraced hills and overlooking all of Lake Kivu, the training site is stunning. Yet contrasted with this beauty, the district is cited as having the highest malnutrition rates in Rwanda. Though the area, like all of Rwanda, is heavily farmed, most of the crops lack vital micro-nutrients, and meals tend to be made up primarily of foods such as potatoes and cassava.
This is exactly what inspired myself and Markey during our Peace Corps days to start making nutritious foods at home with what was available at market-- from cabbage and carrot salads to peanut flour fortified banana breads to our own peanut butter and fresh rosemary loafs. The ingredients exist locally, but the education surrounding a nutritive meal and balanced diet often does not.
Located on the western edge of Rwanda, this will be TWB’s most rural site to date, and will also be our largest collaborative training effort yet. TWB will focus particularly on delivering our nutrition curriculum along with bread baking and fortified recipe development using local crops, while area based organizations and the current Peace Corps Volunteer at site will continue to deliver life skills, business education, and financial literacy courses to the 18-woman co-op. By expanding throughout both urban and rural areas in Rwanda, we aim to tackle malnutrition and bolster economic opportunity in a very real way.
Yvonne's Dreams
Yvonne is a new intern with TWB - and she has big dreams for where she is going.
Even though I have chosen my course of study, I still often feel like I’m looking for that special purpose in life. Am I trying too hard? When I started thinking about the approach I wanted to use to figure out what I want out of life, it made so much sense. I needed to find an organization to work for that was doing something I am passionate about.
Now, I am very happy because I am working with TWB to enable women entrepreneurs to strengthen their ability to be independent in terms of finance and health.
My dream has always been about contributing to the economy of my country by working from the bottom up. In the three months I have spent working with TWB I have learned how to bake different breads, vanilla cake, chocolate cake, chapatti and sambusa. I am learning a lot about how to prepare and to bake delicious and healthful bread and cakes. In addition to baking I have already learned a lot about administration, working in a team, and finance, and I think that in the coming months I will learn even more!
Thanks to Julie, Meg and Aime, and all of the women at The Women’s Bakery!
