I came to Rwanda in 2009 (with the help of a grant from the University of Chicago) to teach English to about 140 orphans and widows of the genocide for an organization called Network for Africa (N4A). My students walked for four hours to N4A’s Learning Center every day just to be given the opportunity to take classes for free. With water for breakfast and no money to buy lunch, they studied from 8am to 4pm hoping that speaking English would help them find jobs and get their siblings through school. The girls among my students were further traumatized by the burdens of rape, AIDS and sexual exploitation, which is why they had formed a group called Women Developing Rwanda that focuses on empowerment and psychological support.

In about a month I realized that even though some of my students speak English quite well, they are very far from finding jobs. In a country where the unemployment rate is 40% having family connections in the right places is often the only way of securing a job. As orphans, my students did not have those connections; furthermore, they were   often responsible for taking care of their younger siblings and were even used as free labor by their host families in exchange for food. No matter what I taught them about cover letter writing, they felt that they were helpless and could not move on. When trying to think of an entrepreneurship exercise I came up with an idea that would transform their lives and my future.

Instead of looking for jobs, why don’t we try to create jobs? Can we start a business? Perhaps a bakery! There is definitely a market for it here and very little competition. Long story short, I came back to Rwanda after an year to find out that Wanda Bakery (as we called it as a play on Rwanda and wonder) is still functioning but needs more capital to scale up in a sustainable way. Getting a loan from one of the major banks is very difficult, if not even impossible, as the women have no collateral. They are survivors of the genocide and are poor, but they have too much life in them to give up fighting. Wanda Bakery would be their business, through which they will earn personal capital and start saving over time to pay for their university fees. As they pursue higher education, they will pass the business to their siblings and the other orphans who will continue the process. Most of all, the bakery is a way to show them that they are not the weak and dependent victims they have often been portrayed as. They are strong and inventive but need some start-up capital. Help me invest in women who will then go on to transform their families, their communities and their Africa.

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