About

Shop4Rwanda.com is a UK based online shop providing fairly-traded Rwandan crafts. The website enables young trainees from Centre Marembo and women's weaving cooperatives to access wider international markets and develop sustainable incomes.

Shop4Rwanda.com was set-up by rYico, a UK-registered charity working to support and empower vulnerable young people in Rwanda. Sales revenue pays the producers a fair wage and help to cover running costs with any surplus going to support rYico's training programmes for young people. For more info about rYico, please see www.ryico.org.

The Cooperatives

Agaseke

As part of restoring hope back after the 1994 genocide, women began income generating activities. One of these activities is through the weaving of the Agaseke, a traditional skillfully designed Rwandan basket woven using sisal, grasses and raffia. Customarily woven by women, the Agaseke basket represents a historic account and is renowned for its impressive quality and associated cultural traditions. It takes several days for weavers to make each basket and the process is often meticulous and requires invariable attention to detail.

The vision of the Agaseke cooperative is to provide an opportunity for vulnerable, unemployed and landless women of Kigali City to work their way out of extreme poverty. The current target is women in the region of Kigali City, covering the three districts namely and the long term vision is to extend the project across the country.  The project support 3,800 women in total who are spread across 16 cooperatives.

The women make a range of handcrafts including peace baskets, bowls, wall hangings, earrings, beaded necklaces, bags and bracelets.  With the income they earn from the sales of the products the women have been able to send their children to school, to pay for their medical insurance and support their families.

Gahaya Links

Gahaya Links is a cooperative consisting mostly of widows of the 1994 genocide. Some are survivors of rape and as a consequence are now living with HIV/AIDS, while others are the wives of men imprisoned for their role in the killings. All now work together as a community to help build a better future for themselves and their families.

Gahaya Links was founded in 2003 by two sisters, Joy Ndungutse and Janet Nkubana. The two women still run the cooperative today, providing training, marketing the crafts and providing incomes for their members.

Gahaya Links started with 6 women weaving under a tree, but today 4000 women are involved in the project. The cooperative has 21 subgroups, each with an elected President, Secretary and Treasurer who manage production, keep track of individual earnings and facilitate financial transactions. Micro-finance systems have also been established to provide interest-free loans and savings accounts for the women to encourage investment in their children's education and health insurance schemes.

Women living with HIV/AIDS are among those who speak most positively about the benefits of the cooperative. Now able to maintain a healthy diet, many say they are finding it easier to tolerate their anti-retro viral medicines and are feeling stronger. Because they now have an income they also no longer feel stigmatised by their neighbours.

Janet and Joy faced many difficulties creating a cooperative of women from both sides of the ethnic divide after the genocide but they have made great strides and their success represents a real hope for Rwanda's future.

"It's very moving to see them today sitting under one roof weaving and doing business together" Janet Nkubana

RwandaAid

The crafts from RwandaAid have been hand crafted by some of the poorest people in South West Rwanda. The majority of them are women working in cooperatives, as well as some disabled young people and orphans.  By purchasing their products you are giving these people hope for the future.  For more information about RwandaAid's work please visit  www.rwanda-aid.org

Centre Marembo

The majority our products, particularly the gift cards, baskets and jewelery, have been designed and produced by young people at Centre Marembo. Centre Marembo is a youth training and resource centre based in Kigali.

Set up in 2005 by rYico, the centre accommodates around 32 young people on a permanent basis and also has drop-in sessions, regular classes, training and sports clubs for other young people from all backgrounds. Centre Marembo is establishing a craft-making scheme with the aims of developing sustainable income for it's beneficiaries and for the centre.

For more info about Centre Marembo, please see www.ryico.org/marembo.html.

Partners

Thank you to Unltd who have provided funding for the development of our product profile.