Eastern Province, Rwanda
March 19, 2009
Numerous studies provide data on why assisting women in generating income benefits the community at large, but actually meeting the women behind those statistics is the best part of my job. Last week I had the opportunity to visit a banana wine cooperative in the East who we are hoping to work with in procuring banana fibres. The coop goes through 7 to 10 tons of banana trees a week meaning that the part we need for our sanitary pad project is being thrown out. Christine, the president of the Coop understood this as a terrific way for village women to earn more money and as she is already a successful business woman she was concerned about spreading wealth to others in her community. She invited women from her village to
come talk to me about the need for low cost sanitary pads and then asked one of her coop members to demonstrate how to extract and prepare banana fibres. She also invited the Chief of Police and the Executive Secretary of the district to come watch and give their support for SHE and banana fibre extraction. What a day!Hannah
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