It is established that when women are living safe, fulfilled and productive lives, they reach their full potential, and become essential to the economic and social development of their families and communities, among other things.  

In Rwanda, many have taken it upon themselves to boost the wellbeing of vulnerable girls and women. Bertrand Byishimo looks at some of the women-empowering social enterprises and non-government organisations that have put this into practice.  

Talking Through Art

This organisation employs women living with disabilities and they are trained on making traditional baskets, among other cultural hand-made products. Located in Kicukiro, the social organisation seeks to empower disabled women by providing employment opportunities to them, which can raise their standards of living.

A beneficiary of Talking Through Art.  Photo: Net

The Du Shop

The social enterprise is made up of more than 10 women who were formerly sex workers but are now craft workers, and the goal of the organisation is to get women off streets. The social enterprise is divided into two; arts and craft, as all the graduates of their trainings make handicrafts, and also health, because most of the recruited individuals are former sex workers.

Kosmopads

After a 2018 study which concluded that 18 per cent of women and girls in Rwanda are missing work or school because they can’t afford to buy sanitary pads, Blandine Umuziranenge came up with Kosmopads Rwanda, a social enterprise which produces reusable sanitary pads for students and other groups of women in high need to ensure they all access the hygienic products.

Kosmopads. / Net Photo

I Matter

This is a non-government organisation that aims at ending period poverty and ending the stigma attached. I Matter believes that improving and investing more in women, not only raises their own and their families’ standards of living, but also that it is a step to poverty eradication. They work in schools, notably University of Rwanda, Huye campus, and its College of Science and Technology in Nyarugenge District.

I Matter seeks to end period poverty. Net Photo

Kandaka Naturals

Kandaka Naturals produces high quality natural cosmetics and donates them to students who are not able to afford them so that they can go to school. 30% of their income is dedicated to that particular section.  The enterprise’s future goal is to produce more eco-friendly products on the market as well as quality Made in Rwanda products that are sustainable, and in years to come, branch out to the whole of Africa, making sure 30% of the income is dedicated to girls who are hindered from school or work due to the inability to afford them.

Seeing Hands Rwanda

This is an organisation that promotes the social wellbeing of women with visual impairments through training, and this transitions most of them to employment. They are empowered through learning massage therapy, a service that does not require visual ability, and facilitated to transition from training to employment. They are also trained in inclusive technology to maximise the chances of employment in the labour market.

Women empowering organisations are needed in Rwanda’s development, because 52 per cent of the population is made up of women. Hence, feminists add, you can’t develop a nation leaving behind half of them. And so women economic activities have to be scaled up in all sectors.