STORY
Located in a small village just off the main North-South road in Huye, Rwanda, Cooperative Agaseke K’Amahoro is doing its part to heal the wounds left by the genocide. One of the first cooperatives to form in Rwanda after the genocide, Cooperative Agaseke K’Amahoro provides skills training and a source of income for the children of genocidaires serving prison terms for their crimes. Many of these children are of mixed ethnic descent. Spending a day at the small cooperative office, it is not uncommon to hear these young adults share stories of how fathers and uncles tried to kill them during the war to “cleanse” the family bloodline. Cooperative Agaseke K’Amahoro provides these survivors with an opportunity to change the course of their lives and contribute positively to the post-genocide Rwanda.
Our vendor artisans in Rwanda gave us a Covid update end of January, 2022. Here is what they had to say:
“Working under Covid has been a very strange experience for us all in Rwanda. After the initial shock and problems back in early 2020, we actually saw a huge amount of growth. At the beginning, with zero guests coming to Rwanda, we saw a huge drop in work for the artisans and so we ran a campaign to raise funds to cover emergency food. However, we then saw a massive increase in export orders so that by the end of the year we had everyone working to full capacity and that continued into 2021. We even ended up taking on new artisans groups and so now we give regular work to over 600 artisans (with an additional 200 odd being brought in for special orders), supporting them and their families.
Now as we enter 2022 we just started building our own campus in the South and we will also be opening a new shop in the North of Rwanda (opening 1st Feb). It will be really interesting to see what happens in the coming year as we open up the new locations. Hopefully the tourists will return so that we can continue to build on what was started in the last couple of years.
The Rwandan government has been very proactive with the vaccine program and they are quite strict on the rules for social distancing, with mandatory mask wearing, lots of hand washing, a curfew and limiting businesses that can operate. In 2020 and 2021 this resulted in a few full lockdowns, however, we were able to keep things going via phone and working from home. As the lockdowns only lasted a few weeks (I think the longest one was 5 weeks) at a time it meant we could ensure we kept artisans going. All in all, with the resources available, the Rwandan authorities have done an excellent job at minimizing the effects of Covid on the population. The new variant did cause a tightening of restrictions around Christmas, but they have begun to loosen off now.”
“We’re choosing hope. With all of this on our hearts, we’re inspired by a verse from the Bible: ‘Perfect love casts out all fear’ (1 John 4:18). Let’s focus on the good, the hopeful, and the beautiful, and stay connected. In community, we can do so much more than we can do on our own.”
