Wanda Bakery – Building a brighter future, one cupcake at a time

In 2009 several young women at the Rwanda Multi Learning Centre started their own business baking cakes and biscuits, which they sell to the Kigali ex-patriot community. Motivated and determined, they are now making a profit.

Rwanda was a poor and under-developed country even before the 1994 genocide that left an estimated one million people dead.  The legacy of the genocide still has an enormous impact on the population as they rebuild their country.  Of those who survived, 97% witnessed the violence, and trauma has hampered productivity at work and school.

More than 400,000 children were orphaned by the genocide. Many were left looking after each other in child-headed households, sacrificing their own education in order to bring up the younger ones at home.  As a consequence, thousands missed out on school and can barely read or write.

In 2009 several members of  a women’s discussion group called Women Developing Rwanda, (part of  the Rwanda Multi Learning Centre), started an income generating business called Wanda Bakery.  The  women wrote a business plan, elected a management committee and learnt how to bake.

Now, the Wanda Bakery women have official cooperative status and produce high quality baked sweet and savoury goods popular with the large ex-patriot community living in Kigali.  The women are making a modest profit, the first strides on the path to financial independence Alice Gikundiro, President of Wanda Bakery, told us, ‘I love cooking and being part of Wanda Bakery. It has helped me to learn how to bake different cookies, and it’s letting me make a living and become an independent and successful woman!’

Network for Africa is supporting these young women as they make their business sustainable and successful.  Loyal supporters have raised money so that Wanda Bakery committee members can attend intensive training courses in baking, cooking and accounting training courses and to buy cooking equipment and ingredients.  While most of their food currently caters to the tastes of the large ex-patriot community in Kigali, the women plan to open a small restaurant that will sell Rwandese food.  They have been re-investing their profits in the bakery, with some support from Network for Africa.