Field Updates

Women's Opportunity Center Set to Open in Rwanda
Kosovo Country Director Hamide Latifi's Trip to Rwanda December 2006
"Peace Baskets" Filled with Hope, OutReach, Spring 2006
"Women Taking A Lead : Progress Toward Empowerment and Gender Equity in Rwanda," Women for Women International Briefing Paper, September 2004.

 

Women's Opportunity Center (WOC) Set to Open in Rwanda

Project Description

The WOC-Rwanda will serve as a permanent safe haven for women to gather, providing an interactive environment where they can cultivate their collective bargaining power and facilitate women led change. The WOC will be a significant vocational training and community development project for WfWI – Rwanda.  It will provide a space for the core training of participants and the provision of services for graduates. Core training consists of twelve months of vocational and life skills training, financial and emotional support and an opportunity to meet regularly in supportive Women’s Groups. The WOC will also include a demonstration farm, two acres of land on which trainers can showcase and teach farming techniques.  The building itself will be large enough to accommodate all Women’s Group meetings.  The centralization of training in one space will permit WfWI-Rwanda to more efficiently conduct and expand its core program to reach more women. 

To further strengthen and expand the depth of services in Rwanda, WfWI is planning to establish a Women’s Opportunity Center (WOC) to serve as a major vehicle for delivery of programmatic services to WfWI participants and graduates. The Women’s Opportunity Center is a logical stage in the evolution of WfWI programming. WfWI has made great strides in helping conflict-affected women move along the first stage of the journey from victim to survivor to active citizen. Evaluation data shows that while women leave the program with strengthened confidence, increased knowledge and a firmer support network, more work remains to help ensure that women become fully active citizens in the economic, social and civic arenas. Strategies to help facilitate this process include ensuring that women:

 

• Are equipped to sustain an income after graduation,
• Receive effective business training in order to make their businesses more successful,
• Have an opportunity to find regular employment,
• Are ready to take action to realize rights for themselves and others, and
• Are prepared to take on leadership roles in their communities.

Project Activities

The three primary programs taking place within the WOC are: the provision of the core program, the provision of graduate services and the piloting of the Commercial Integrated Farming Initiative (CIFI) program.

• The core program also consists of rights awareness and life skills training. Participants meet bimonthly with their Women’s Group, a support system of approximately 20 women. Trainings are facilitated by local women trainers who use WfWI’s “A Woman’s World: A Training Curriculum Guiding Women’s Social, Economic and Civic Participation toward Active Citizenship.”. The manual is designed to help women understand their unique rights: politically, as survivors of war or other conflict and as voices in bringing about stability; economically, in understanding their rights to earn a fair income; legally, in acquiring skills to fight discrimination, domestic violence and other civil wrongs; and personally, with respect to access to health issues, such as human reproduction, pregnancy, childbirth and nutrition. Along with the cultivation of leadership skills, these meetings also serve to unite and support a network of women. Vocational and technical skills training is the last key component of WfWI’s holistic approach.  It builds on and strengthens women’s existing skills and introduces new skills in traditional and non-traditional fields so women can access future employment opportunities. Local instructors provide vocational skills training in areas such as farming, animal husbandry and handcrafts based on a WfWI assessment of the most marketable income generating opportunities available.  
• Graduate services will possibly include business development assistance, advanced training in a vocational skill area to meet a special market opportunity, cooperative training, community organization development, or leadership training. In addition, the WOC will provide space for partnership and complementary services facilitating access to local expertise in critical sectors such as health and wellness, literacy, and economics.
• The CIFI pilot program is WfWI’s flagship agricultural and income generation project. CIFI is targeted to impact a large number of women through training in appropriate skills, techniques and sustainable practices of crop production and animal husbandry. Moreover, CIFI delivers fundamental business skills and cooperative education to promote viable commercial enterprises for long-term sustainability, and the identification of markets and market partnerships for their products.

Project Location

The WOC-Rwanda will be located in Kayonza District of Eastern Province, Rwanda. The rationale for this location was predicated on the demographic analysis of Kayonza District and identification of a significant population level of women requiring the services provided by WfWI. It was determined that offering a centralized training location would enhance the efficiency of program delivery and maximize the beneficial impact of the women we serve.  Moreover, WfWI had an already established presence in the community through the operation of a sub-office and this region provided the  availability of fertile land for the development of our major agricultural initiative CIFI.

Progress

A final design has been approved and earthworks are scheduled to begin in August

 

Kosovo Country Director Hamide Latifi's Trip to Rwanda December 2006

Rwanda: A dark past - A bright future
Written by: Hamide Latifi, Country Director - Kosovo
Kigali, Rwanda
December 22, 2006
It is December and in Kosovo it is the middle of winter.  I am writing this letter from Rwanda, however, and here it feels more like late spring or early summer—fresh and comfortable.
Looking outside, the lush landscape gives the impression that everything in Rwanda is flourishing, from the bushes and trees to the women in our program.  Once I scratch beneath the surface and speak with some of our participants, I realize that all of the blooming flowers are, in many cases, decorating the harsh Rwandan reality, where women are struggling to overcome impossible poverty and injustice. Still, women and men alike are fiercely determined to rebuild their country into something they can be proud of.

I visited our rights awareness and job skills training classes.  How badly these women want to be there!  I wish you could see it for yourself. Some of the women walk for hours to attend class, often carrying their babies on their backs since they cannot afford childcare. One baby was only five days old!  The women sit together, making baskets with the kids still sleeping on their backs.  The women look after each other and each other’s children with so much care and love, never complaining, determined to use this opportunity as their way out of poverty, isolation and marginalization.

I spoke with several of the women as they made their baskets—used for everything from carrying products to and from the local market to storing food—for the first of three days that week. One of these women was Vestine.  My brief encounter with this young woman has expanded my small world and reminded me of the incredible power of determination.

Vestine is 22 years old and lives in Kigali with a friend since she has no place of her own. Her husband abandoned her when she was almost eight months pregnant.  She now has a 13 month-old baby boy, but she has not heard from her husband since he left.

Abandoned at the worst time, alone with no door to knock on, she somehow managed. “I dedicated my baby to God,” she said, “since I saw us as completely alone. I don’t know where my husband is, I haven’t heard from him since he left, but I think that he lives in Kigali. I have family: mum, 7 sisters and 2 brothers. They live in another part of the country. The family knows about my difficult life, but they can not help me, because they have no resources, they are struggling for themselves.” 
Vestine participates in our program and is learning to make baskets. When I first met her she was wearing a nice dress, colorful and seamed quiet fine. Later, I traveled with some of our Rwandan staff to visit Vestine at home. I did not recognize her. She had on an old blouse and it was so dark in her room.  There was nothing to see but a small, empty space. Her child was crying hungry and grabbing her breast, but there was no milk. Her eyes were wet with tears.

With such dignity, she went on to tell me her story, saying simply that she will complete course and change her life. “I believe that by learning the skill of making baskets, I will be able to form a cooperative with other women to make baskets and together we will sell them.” She adds, “I have tried to do small business, sell small things in the street, but I haven’t got a regular place and I was chased by security in the city.” Local security forces do not allow women to sell products in the road, requiring that they have a stall in the market instead.  Since Vestine could not afford a stall, she had to stop the only income generating activity she felt capable of doing.

Vestine has basic reading and writing skills and I wanted to hear from her how she imagines her future.  Through a translator, she spoke calmly and with tremendous determination, as if she had already begun her journey. “I will continue to work with my group to do baskets. I hope we get orders and sell them. I believe God will help me to have a better life. I think each day about my sponsor and pray for her. May God bless her. I wish her all the best for Christmas and in the New Year.”  
Vestine finished by saying, “my son will have better future, I will work for him to make it.” I believed her completely. She will make it. She has determination, and a burning desire to change her life. There are literally thousands of women like Vestine, who work tirelessly to improve their lives and create a better future for their children. They have been given this chance through the support of their sponsors from all around the world, and they know that, and appreciate it very much.

There is so much to be done in this country with such a dark past.  But, with so much hope, I cannot help but envision a brighter future. As the Director of Women for Women International – Kosovo, when I came to Rwanda I was carrying pain with me for women in Kosovo whose lives had been devastated, and Women for Women International is working so hard to help them get their lives back.  In Rwanda, after meeting women like Vestine, my pain got deeper. But this is not a reason to cry or give up. In fact, the opposite is true. There is plenty of room to work, build and develop—one woman at a time. Stronger women lead to stronger nations.

This is why, dear sponsors and friends, I did not write this letter to make you cry but to make you feel proud to be part of our global community, working to build bridges across oceans.
I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. Happy New Year! 

"Peace Baskets" Filled with Hope, OutReach, Spring 2006

Rwandan women are returning to a traditional handicraft dating back a thousand years as they reclaim and rebuild their lives 12 years after the Rwandan genocide. Side by side, these women are making “peace baskets” woven from sisal fibers using traditional techniques and designs. Customarily, women design the baskets to celebrate communal harmony or tell stories of celebration, such as weddings or births. The baskets serve many functions in Rwandese culture... Today, these peace baskets provide a source of income for hundreds of women across Rwanda and have become symbols of reconciliation.

"Women Taking A Lead : Progress Toward Empowerment and Gender Equity in Rwanda," Women for Women International Briefing Paper, September 2004.

In the initial aftermath of the 1994 genocide, Rwandese women were traumatized and deeply divided. In the course of 100 days, approximately 800,000 Rwandese were killed and 2 million fled into exile. Most genocide survivors were women and many were widows who suffered through bereavement, injury, trauma, isolation and illness. Women whose husbands were in prison, charged with committing the genocide, also struggled to raise their families alone. Women were represented in every category-- victims, perpetrators and bystanders-- and their communities were deeply divided.

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