Although a financial literacy training may not sound fun to many people, our team at the Women’s Bakery has figured out how to personalize these sessions. Through identifying the needs of our #StrongWomenBakingBread and addressing them in a manner that is accessible and even fun! In the past, we outsourced our financial literacy training sessions but thanks to the addition of our first-ever financial director, Peace Izamukuza, we have been able to develop these sessions in-house! Peace joined The Women’s Bakery in August of 2020 as a financial consultant and has been instrumental in planning and implementing strategies to help us achieve our financial goals both at the company level and at the individual level by working with our bakers through our financial literacy sessions.
Our current curriculum, centered on self-reliance, is broken into nine classes which will cover topics such tracking expenses, creating a budget - and sticking to it, setting financial goals, investing in the future, as well as handling debts and different types of financial crises. Each class comes with its own sub topics, core questions, a visual illustration to show its impact, and a hands-on exercise for each participant. These sessions also offer women the chance to get to know each other outside of their baking shifts - and - break bread with another over a catered lunch!
Our first session in Kigali started with introductions which led to a discussion on what self-reliance means. After setting some norms and sharing the importance of this training, the women completed an exercise reflecting on their financial status prior to joining The Women’s Bakery, after joining the team, and what their future goals are. Several bakers mentioned that prior to starting at The Women’s Bakery, they worked as street vendors selling various goods, which is illegal in Rwanda. Several mothers remarked that school fees and rent loomed over their heads every month. After joining #TeamTWB, our hard working colleagues have gained financial security in terms of having a steady income to pay for school fees, a healthy diet, rent, clothes, and even land! Nearly all the participants shared that their future goals include owning a home amongst other things like starting their own business, or investing in their children’s future education. Outside of the tangible financial benefits we also heard that women felt a sense of financial freedom - leaving behind fears of asking their husbands or family members for money.
Florence, a baker in Kigali, shared that prior to working at The Women’s Bakery there was a lot of uncertainty in her life: “I used to be a street vendor - this is illegal in Rwanda - life was hard. I was a single mother. Sometimes the police could arrest me and confiscate the basket of goods that I was carrying on my head - that meant that I would lose all of it and have to start from scratch. Now, I do not face any issues with local leaders or the police anymore. I can earn monthly and I can pay the school fees for my children, and pay rent. In the future, I want to own a home and stop renting.”
At The Women’s Bakery we believe that women are inherently powerful. And that when a woman has access to social and economic opportunity, the world will benefit. This starts with financial security in their own homes. For many of our bakers, financial freedom not only means that they can take care of themselves and their families, but also being able to pay it forward to help those in need in their own communities.
