Most non-profits want to show their impact with numbers. Big numbers. And, in a short period of time.
Stakeholders want people trained in the 1,000s or 10s of thousands. Stakeholders want number of lives touched in the millions. However, all too often, those numbers do not account for the depth of impact and confuse a small touch with programming to mean big change for that individual, their families, or their communities.
At TWB we have questioned the traditional numbers and goals for these numbers that non-profits use.
Some of the questions we asked ourselves were:
- Will the women who go through TWB training ACTUALLY be able to get a job with the skills they learned?
- Will that job allow them to work EVERY DAY, indefinitely, and slowing increase their salary?
- Will they ACTUALLY be making more money than when they started training?
- Will they ACTUALLY have access to healthcare?
This is what we have been trying to prove over two years later. And, the answers are yes.
- 100% of women who go through our training program are offered jobs after training in TWB owned or managed bakeries.
- Employment in TWB owned or managed bakeries is every day, six days a week, all months of the year (excluding public holidays).
- On average, women working in TWB owned or managed bakeries make 2x their pre-bakery salaries from their first day of employment.
- 100% of women at TWB owned or managed bakeries have access to health insurance and monthly mental health counseling as benefits to their employment.
However, this is not without a tremendous amount of both financial and human capital invested. It is through the hard work of an entire team of 12 Rwanda-based employees and interns that execute and operate our programs.
We have realized the power of our impact on just one woman.
We believe that small, incremental change is a strong indicator of sustainable change. Our team is proud of all the hard work we have contributed to making a difference in the lives of the women we work with.
