Nyamirambo group gives school dropouts hope

Over 180 women in Nyamirambo in Nyarugenge district have benefitted from business mentorship and training in craft-making. The project that targets disadvantaged women and girls aims at promoting literacy and vocational skills to improve their living standards, Marie Aimee Umugeni, the president of Nyamirambo Women Centre, said.“The programme gives women who missed out on formal education an opportunity to acquire skills and start income generating activities to improve their livelihoods,” Umugeni said.She said the women and girls are trained how to use different materials like dry banana fibre to make chairs, bags, baskets and earrings which they sell to crafts dealers and tourists. Umugeni said the main objective of the project is to stimulate economic empowerment and reduce poverty among women as well as promote tourism. It targets school dropouts, illiterates and genocide orphans. The group is supported by the Rwanda Association of University Women and the Slovenian-based Peace Institute, she added. Umugeni noted that despite the support, they were facing many challenges, including inadequate tools and lack of training rooms and better markets for their products. She calls on the government to allocate funds in the next budget to support groups like theirs, saying the organisations were good vehicles to eradicating poverty among disadvantaged groups.However, the group has been able to get sponsorship for some of its members like Jacqueline Uwamwiza to complete their studies. Uwamwiza, who had dropped out of school due to lack of money, was sponsored by the Peace Institute and is now a business studies graduate from the School of Finance and Banking.Umugeni advises women not to sit and wait for handouts from their husbands, saying that they can make a difference by contributing to the family baskets.