Banana Buffet!

February 17, 2010
Kayonza, Rwanda



So folks, hope you are back to non Red-black wear, if there is anyone out there who did not receive a ‘Happy Valentines message’, that does not mean you are not loved, it has come late, but SHE loves you!

Last week on Friday I went on a Banana fiber (SHE Raw materials) hunting trip.
So a friend of mine, conversant with the Eastern region-Rwanda, an area with the largest banana growing population, traveled with me, to show me around the land of bananas, you will not believe the amount of stems thrown around and the sizes of the plantations.

We visited one farmer, who has acres of land with bananas, and surrounded by another 5-6 farmers of the same, they were all interested in hearing what we need the banana stems for and how possibly these stems can amazingly produce great hygiene products like sanitary pads.

I took time to show them the extraction process, I was even promised extracted samples which I will go to see in the next one week.

I came back with a bunch of banana, in case anyone wants to join me for a banana buffet!

So this morning, Fatima (our M&E expert) and I had a session of brainstorming over the chain of supply and distribution.

Do not go away; watch out for our brilliant brainstorming reporting on ‘Raw materials supply-production and distribution’

Julian

Saddling Up!

February 3, 2010
Kigali, Rwanda

Hi there, SHE companions,

It’s been an interesting week – sad to see Elizabeth leave Kigali for New York, but I’m comforted in knowing that she’ll be back in a month!

So it’s me and Julian, Julian and me, me and Julian. This week, I made progress on setting up a monitoring and evaluation system – did a lot of research and prepared a bunch of documents that we’ll be taking to the community health workers later this week. We want input in two areas: the pad sales, and the health and hygiene education. We visited the community health workers in Kigali last Friday, and got a lot of great feedback from them. Ghras stood out as the leader in the group – articulating positive feedback, as well as concerns. The interesting thing is that Ghras and the others didn’t just say such and such is a problem; they also told us how they think we could address it. Spending time in the field is invaluable, and I’m glad I’ll be doing a lot of that in the coming weeks.

And the other thing on my agenda is finding banana farmers all across Rwanda. Wouldn’t you want to give up your banana fibers for the making of pads? Tell me if you know any farmers with banana plantations please!

Fatima

Leapfrogging with our phones!

February 1, 2010
Kigali, Rwanda

Hey folks,

Best Weekend wishes from Rwanda.(I know mine was great!It was my sisters Bday on Saturday and my brother's on Sunday, and Heroes Day is today in Rwanda! Never could ask for a better Weekend!)



You will not believe one of the best developments that is happening to SHE, one of the Mobile tech services, MTN, has launched money mobile services in Rwanda (hopefully in the region too), this is something that will enable the local population to send and receive money at an affordable cost, presently , one can only send/receive money through the traditional way, biggest percentage (having to get one to carry the cash, if they are going to a destination where you want the money taken) sending through the local bus services-which has also become expensive, bank transfer or the international courier services which are affordable by a few. MTN promises to beat these both in the number of services offered and cost.

We at SHE, hope to use this with our Community Health Workers being able to receive and send money in the sanitary pad sales and distribution, since they are based in remote areas where the aforementioned services do not exist, but MTN service centres exist.

Watch US.

Julian

Entrepreneurs Everywhere

January 21, 2010
Kigali, Rwanda

Greetings SHE’ers,

It’s been a busy and exciting week in Rwanda. We went to a really fascinating entrepreneurship gathering on Monday evening sponsored by JCI – the group has a creed that everyone was asked to say together standing up (which started to give Elizabeth SHE ideas, until Julian and I gave her a don’t-abuse-your-power look). So after we all sang/stated the creed, there was an initiation ceremony for the new officers and board for 2010. Over the course of the evening, there were some interesting motivational type of speakers that talked about the importance of development in Rwanda: one of the biggest goals for the country is to increase the amount of jobs available in the formal sector (to 1 million, the speaker said).

One of the things that drew me to SHE was how many different aspects of development it contributes to – from curbing infections related to using rags to helping girls continue to attend school to helping women start their own businesses that they then expand and use to create local jobs. It’s a powerful idea, and I look at the two women that I work with each day and now that these are the women are quietly making big things happen.

Keep reading and commenting please,
Fatima