Sanyu Christine is a member of the 75 women participants from the Kicukiro district, Gatenga sector that are participating in Women for Women Rwanda (WfW-Rwanda)'s 12-month holistic program known as Stronger Women Stronger Nation (SWSN) starting from June 2022.
Literacy and numeracy skills are key for rural women, particularly those who did not get a chance to receive a formal education, to be able to effectively manage their income-generating activities; which is the reason why WfW-Rwanda opted to include these topics in its Economic Empowerment training curriculum.
Women for Women Rwanda with its mission to empower women with skills and knowledge to build healthier lives developed the program numeracy and literacy training component to provide women with basic reading and writing skills; in addition to calculation techniques.
This training component takes three months and is completed in the third month of the year-long holistic program
Business skills help women to manage their businesses; to calculate and make sense of losses and profits; amongst other things. Additionally, through the training, women learn to develop business plans.
Sanyu Christine is a 50-year-old single mother from Gahanga; a mother of 3 children. She works hard to raise her children; Her eldest daughter completed Senior 6 this year; while her two sons are in Senior 3 and Primary 4
Before joining WfW-Rwanda, Sanyu lived in arduous conditions. She barely managed to cater to her basic needs; as well as those of her family. She was lucky when one of her friends decided to train her in hairdressing; it helped her to earn a living.
In June this year 2022, Sanyu was selected as one of WfW-Rwanda’s program participants.
She expresses her happiness about the WfW-Rwanda program. She says that after having been enrolled by WfW-Rwanda, her life started changing. Sanyu says that Module 2 considerably helped her to open her mind.
“Before the training, I did not value my life to the extent I fell sick and would not bother going to the hospital regardless of how serious my health deteriorated. From the moment I learned that my health is an asset to me, I promised myself I would always pay for my Mutuelle (Medical Insurance); so that I receive treatment whenever needed,” said Sanyu.
Right after being trained in “Managing household finances, making plans to save and Opportunities for income generation”, Sanyu decided to invest 7500 FRW (some of the money gotten from her stipend) in baking doughnut dough (Mandazi) as a source of income for her family; and she got a profit of 2500frw. Since then, she has turned it into a business. People in her community love her doughnuts, and she is now supplying four (4) boutiques.
“WfW-Rwanda has changed my life; I have plans to expand my business with the aim of satisfying my customers. With my business growth, I will own a house” she added