Christmas is fast approaching and several enterprises are helping their clients get in the mood. One such way, through a Christmas bazaar.
Over the weekend, ten groups of women with different enterprises convened in Kigali to showcase and sell their wide variety of merchandise ranging from handcrafts, farm products, garden arts, locally made food, among other products.
Dubbed ‘Women’s Xmas & Spa Bazaar’, the marketing event aimed at bringing together organisations and enterprises that that focus on either women empowerment or empowered by women with the main goal of empowering each other.
Among the objectives, the event as well was expected to raise awareness and fight period poverty- whereby according to the organisers, five percent of money earned from each exhibitor will directly go to supporting girls in schools, who can’t afford buying sanitary towels.
Statistics reveal that about 20 per cent of school girls cannot go to school during their period as they cannot afford hygienic products.
According to Aicha Seifelislam, founder of Kandaka Naturals, a social enterprise and one of the organisers said the idea was to bring together women that are in business to support, network as well as learn from each other.
Seifelislam added that apart from not accessing sanitary towels, there are other issues faced by girls including taboos, where a girl doesn’t know how and who to talk to when they start their menstruation and that no one talks about this therefore, with financial support, she is oblivious this can be addressed as well.
Philippa Kibugu-Decuir, the founder of Breast Cancer Initiative East Africa (BCIEA) who was also one of the participants with her initiative, Icyangwe Enterprise Rwanda (IER) said she was excited to exhibit her products and that the bazaar was just one of the avenues to test what was going on with her newest product on the market.
IER is basically an enterprise that makes a natural sponge made from loofah plant - used as a body sponge and to exfoliate the skin and stimulate blood circulation while you bathe.
"I am looking forward to exposure and conversations amongst ourselves to see how we can support each other and also to see the overview of people’s mind about not only Icyangwe Enterprise, but also other women’s products and initiatives.