Bpeace in Rwanda

Evening Marketing Session at Gitarama

REIPA Conference
Sabra, Selma and Manny attended the second day of the REIPA conference. It opened this morning with an address from the president of African Development Bank, who's stated “It is not a shortage of cash that we are faced with; it is allocation of excess cash that is the issue.” As Sabra and Selma clearly see it, the challenge for Bpeace is accessing the “excess cash” for our associates’ businesses.

“Dairy Queen”
Loretta, Marla and Richard visited Consolé Mukamuringo. Consolé runs a dairy bar right across the street from one of the largest, modern markets in Kigali. Consolé sells fresh milk, yogurt, juice and muffins. She plans to expand by selling ice cream and cheese using the money she made from her business plus a loan. When Consolé mentioned her desire to have a premium dairy bar in Kigali at the Bpeace training last week, we referred to her as “The Dairy Queen.” She has also opened a party decoration business that sells flowers, and rents chairs and tents for weddings and other functions. In her spare time, she is perfecting her English by attending an English class.

Back to the Future
Anne, Marla, Richard and Loretta visited Pascasie’s beverage distribution center again; but this time with a representative from the African Development Foundation who may help Pascasie secure a grant and is interested in learning more about the other businesses of our new associates.

Association Co-Op Training
Anne joined Cari, who spent the day at the training sessions, for an evening discussion on quality, design and developing markets for the goods they will be knitting. The women are extremely sharp and had many ideas for marketing their future knit products.