written by TWB Operations Intern, Martha Mukakalisa
On the 24th of January, The Women’s Bakery team in Rwanda held our annual retreat in Gisenyi (Rubavu District).
All together, we were a team of 12, all as staff and interns working with The Women’s Bakery. We had the added benefit of also having the founder of TWB (Markey Culver) and co-founder (Julie Greene), too.
The main purpose of the retreat was to review how 2017 went what we want 2018 to look like. This was achieved through presentations on organizational culture, alignment, project reports, and updates on marketing plans, curriculum updates, and model adaptations.
During the retreat conversations and sessions, we were sure to always come back to the overall mission and vision of our organization: TWB exists to create access to education to ensure sustainable gainful, employment for women, and for improved health for the women (as well as the communities in which we work).
We also had time to build relationships on the through playing some engaging games, providing feedback to one another, and of course, sharing food together. Aime, our Training Manager, led many of these team-building sessions, and with 12 people, it was a great way to enhance camaraderie on our team.
At the end of the retreat we revisited the mission and the vision of TWB as well as the goals of 2018.
The goals of 2018 are big: to bring the existing bakeries to breakeven and profitability, to test the proposed model for success at Gicumbi (the new bakery), and to ensure that the bakeries consistently produce and sell high quality and nutritious products.
