From June 2022, 75 women from KICUKIRO district GATENGA sector are participating in WfW-Rwanda's 12 months holistic program known as Strong Women Strong Nation (SWSN)
Today we are living in a digital world, and Rwanda’s political drive is to provide education to all, differently from many years ago when some people were embarrassed to get to school being adults.
Gender inequality was also part of the barriers, whereby women and girls were supposed to study moderately, so as not to become superior to men; they were considered the ones to handle the household activities, and they were meant to stay home while men and boys went to school as heads of families.
Women for Women Rwanda with its mission to empower women with skills and knowledge; has added in its program numeracy and literacy training with which selected women are trained to know how to write, read and calculate based on the calculation and literacy related to Business skills. This training takes three months at the beginning of the of 12 months holistic program namely strong women strong nation (SWSN).
The business skills will help them also manage their own small or big businesses, it facilitates them to calculate loss and profits, compare, measure, to make the different operations such as addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication as used in different market operations.
These skills, prepare them to become good entrepreneurs for their own projects as they learned how to make their own business plans.
Income and outcomes in their businesses, individuals or in cooperatives, or emerging groups were counted.
Djamila is 22 years old, from Kabidandi Village, Kagasa Cell, Gahanga Sector, Kicukiro District., a Single Mother of one 3 years old girl. Before joining WfW-Rwanda’s SWSN program, she used to work in the hair salon after being trained by her mother who was doing that casual work in addition to pedicures and manicures since she was young. She is the second born in a family of three children, and from a polygamous father, who left his family when Djamila was 9 years old and her young sister was 8 along with her younger sister and elder brother who was 11 at their grandmother’s place for holidays. The young stepmother to them said that he as well left him too to Uganda and since that time, no one saw him or have his news.
My Mother started a long journey with our brother who got sick mentally, and my sister and I, have not been able to pursue our studies, because of the lack of school fees and food. We helped our mother to make hair and do pedicures and manicures, the casual work which helps me too to feed and live with my family
“I salute the Women for Women Rwanda program well because it helped me meet other young mothers and other adult women who love me much as I assist them in different activities such as digitalized savings and calculation; now I consider WfW-Rwanda a second family,” said Jamila
She expects that the leather production skills will help to create her own business, but meanwhile, she plans to increase her business and save much more for getting the capital.
The education of her child is the first dream that Djamila has. Nowadays she is able to pay the school fees of 15,000rwf where her daughter started the first term in a good school as she considers it.