News

Great news: 20 more women have joined the Beacon Program! Through the Beacon Program, unemployed women start small businesses selling the K-Light solar lantern in their communities. The women work together in a cooperative to run the business, and the addition of this new group marks the opening of the second branch of Ingenzi za Rwezamenyo Cooperative (the first branch being in districts of Kigali).

Last week, these 20 women received business training to enable them to run their business effectively. Koinonia Foundation benefitted from a University of Michigan MBA student named Dale, who was working on the K-Light project in Rwanda. He agreed to set aside a portion of his time to impart some Ross School of Business knowledge to the women in the program. (For future training, we will be using Rwandese business students.)

One of the things Dale did during the training was to get all the women together and teach them some marketing strategies. Then he broke them up into groups for a mock competition to pitch a marketing plan. The women had some great suggestions on how to expand the business and on additional products they could sell. I suspect that some of the ideas they had will become part of their business!

After the 5-day training program, each of the women received a grant of 6 K-Lights as the capital to begin the business. Good luck to the women of the Ingenzi za Rwezamenyo – Ngoma Branch. We’re looking forward to supporting you on this journey.

Here are a few snapshots from the experience. Thanks to Dale, for sharing his knowledge and his pictures. Enjoy your chicken!