What have you been doing in the last two and half years?
During COVID we were not actively involved in our usual activities, but during the partial lift lockdown we started to again get active.
What business do you have now?
We are in different businesses. We weave baskets, and we also farm. We have expanded our gardens. We are growing fruit and tea.
When did you become a community facilitator?
I became a community facilitator in 2017, when the groups started.
What changed in your life and your family in that time?
A lot has changed. We are able pay school fees for our children. We learnt to be clean in our homes and we live better with our housebands. Before when we [women] had nothing to do we always had to ask for money from our husbands, but now we contribute.
Story
In 2017 when AEE Rwanda formed self-help groups in Karumbi village, Jean d’Arc was selected as a community facilitator. She led her self-help groups from strength to strength, setting up enterprises from making soap to a collective vegetable garden..
Over the last two years the COVID-19 pandemic slowed their growth, but they now have expanded gardens and added fruit and tea to their produce, in addition to weaving baskets for sale.
Jean d’Arc’s parents died when she was 18, and with them her ambition to attend university. She married and together with her husband worked as casual labour. Since then a lot has changed for her and the women she works with, “we are able to pay school fees for our children. We learned to be clean in our homes and we live better with our husbands. Before, we always had to ask for money from our husbands but now we contribute.”