I visited Kigali to go gorilla trekking and was privileged to take a tour of the Nyamirambo Women’s centre in Kigali (a must visit). Here the seed was planted to expand this opportunity to women in their home villages. In keeping the ladies in their own villages, it affords them the opportunity and flexibility of being with their families and the community.

Together with community leaders and local government we identified the village of Kinigi. Kinigi is situated in the Northern Province of Rwanda in the Musanze sector approximately 2 hours drive from Kigali.

The objective of Amizero is to give single women, some who are survivors of the Genocide that occurred in 1994, an opportunity to regain some of the fundamentals that were lost to them during this time in their lives. Some of the ladies are orphans having lost their families and support structures during the genocide.

Our first training program started in June 2018. During a selection process we selected 41 women to start the training program. The training program lasts for 8 months during which they learn the skill of tailoring and embroidery. They learn how to draft a pattern, cut and make clothing for clients and do hand embroidery. Their skills include the use of manual and electric sewing machines, use of an over-locker machine and hand embroidery. They are also taught how to make numerous items for retail including backpacks, computer bags, reusable shopping bags, sisal products and sun hats just to mention a few.

At the end of the training the ladies form a co-op which they become members of. This affords them the opportunity to make their goods and retail them. This gives them the opportunity to earn money for themselves and their families. The ladies all attend class daily from Monday to Friday. Some of these ladies walk up to 2hours each way to the training centre in order to receive their training. There are strict rules governing the project.

Unplanned pregnancy is a big problem for many women who are desperate, but this program is offering a way out, giving them hope for themselves and their children. Some ladies on the project have been removed from prostitution and drug addiction. Education on these matters is key and the facilitators engage with the ladies regularly on these matters. Most of the women have children ranging from babies to toddlers. In order to accommodate the children, we have supervision for the children during training times.

We have also started a feeding scheme for the children and the trainees. Each trainee receives a meal every day consisting mainly of vegetables and we have a milk program for the babies. This for most is the only meal they have in a day. We employ other local women from Kinigi to do the cooking thereby creating employment for more women.

The training centre is in the centre of Kinigi village. We have one large training room that accommodates all the trainees. We have 4 manual sewing machines and 11 electric machines at present and an over-locker. The ladies follow a program whereby they alternate between the different machines and hand embroidery.

At present we are looking for larger premises in order to accommodate more sewing machines. The aim is to have all the ladies on their own machines.