Earning a living from the ‘basket’

Rwanda’s business sector is largely informal and unemployment levels remain high especially among women. This is due to the historical stereotype and Poverty is still rampant in the rural areas and agriculture employs up to 90 percent. According to a case study on Rwanda by Goretti Fukamusenge, university of Ottawa faculty of law in 2004, employment in Rwanda is characterised mostly by gender disparities where women occupy 34.6 percent of jobs in the public sector against 65 percent for men. While in the non-public sector, women make up 31.9 percent of the jobs compared to 68.1 percent for men. In order to try and make ends meet, Rwandan women have ventured into various businesses. They do this to support their families as well. Women are engaged in jobs such as butchery, construction, road works which was previously a preserve for men. However, Esperance Mukantwali, a mother of four, has been earning her living from the “basket” for the last two years and says she is fine with it. Mukantwali who vends various food stuffs in a basket from place to place is stationed in Gikondo trading centre. She sells commodities such as avocado, tomatoes, oranges and every thing else that she will find as she has no speciality. “I did not have a job before and I am a single mother. I needed to raise my children. I had done all sorts of things to keep my children happy but I would never get enough. At times we had only one meal a day.” According to her, all her woes started when her husband, Claver Ruterana, abandoned her when the children were very young. “We both didn’t have jobs. We struggled financially but it was easier when we were two. All of a sudden, he left without a reason and in the middle of it I had to fend for my children and that is how I ended up in this business.” She says that she can sell upto 5 baskets of fruits on week days earning atleast 1,000Frw from each basket per day. On weekends, especially on Sundays, she registers higher proceeds selling up to 7 baskets. Accordingly, Mukantwali and many others in the same trade buy the fruits from trucks which bring them from upcountry at a cheaper price and sell them at a profit. She is now happy with her modest success that she has achieved ever since she started this business. “I am now fine and happy with my job because I am able to feed my children, clothe them and they go to school with healthy bodies and minds. I even pay house rent without any difficulties and also manage to save some of it,” Mukantwali says. Another young woman, Donatha Kampire, who said she has been in this business for eight months also said that she feels economically liberated after trying several jobs in vain. After dropping out of school due to lack of finances, Kampire could not find what to do. At home, she was not in good terms with her step-mother. She opted to find a job through a friend as a maid but the working conditions forced her to quit after just two months on the job. She could not go back to her step-mother but went to Gikondo to stay with her aunt. That’s where she was introduced to the business by her aunt and she says her life has never been the same again. “I am very happy that I have a business of my own where I am my own boss. I can get everything I want and I am very grateful to my aunt who gave me the capital to start it.” However their only predicament is the law as they are always on the lookout for police and any other law enforcers. The law does not recognise them since they don’t operate in cooperatives or get stalls in big markets. Ends