Updates
Update: July 2011 There are now 60 trainees in the program and they have been matched with 20 business mentors. Strong and productive relationships are being developed between the trainees and their mentors.
Consultants from Business Development Services, an umbrella body of private businesses set up to help Rwanda’s rural business people, have also come on board to help trainees improve their market competitiveness.
Recently, trainees participated in conflict resolution training where they learned skills that will help them deal with conflicts that may arise in the course of their business activities. Training like this is especially important in a country like Rwanda that has a long and painful history of conflict and violence.
Individual success stories continue to emerge, including that of 21-year-old trainee Manirarora, who increased his income by establishing a motorbike transport business. Orphaned at age 4, Manirora was selling mobile phone credits when he joined the World Vision program.
After receiving training, Manirarora gained a driving licence and successfully applied for a low interest loan which he used to buy his motorcycle. He now earns around $210 per month and plans to repay his loan within 12 months. With increased income, Manirarora will be able to cover the costs of sending his younger brother to secondary school.
Update: September 2010
There are now 40 participants matched to 20 local business people who act as mentors. All of these have undertaken specialist business skills training, as have the mentors who are interested in updating their own skills and improving their own businesses.
Mentors are enjoying their role and gaining respect in the community for their contribution to improving young people's lives. This is encouraging other community members to consider supporting the project. As the concept of philanthropy is not common in Rwanda, this is a significant development for the community.
Each of the young people has developed their own business plan for submission to a microfinance institution. The applications are being reviewed and some applicants have received loans to start or expand their businesses.
Even without the loans, some participants have already applied the advice of their business mentors to make changes to their businesses, resulting in improved earnings. For example, one participant with a shoe repair business used his savings to start buying and selling shoes to expand his income.
Update: July 2010
Since participants were selected in March 2010, they have been provided with business development skills, begun to write formal business plans and received guidance on how to obtain microfinance.
There are 22 female and 38 male participants, many of whom had existing small scale businesses. For example, several participants were selling charcoal, which is a main local fuel source, vegetables, spices and oil, and in one case, a young female composer was trying to sell her songs.
Participants have been paired with local businessmen and women. They are also meeting with formal groups like the Private Sector Federation and other non-profit organisations such as the Imbuto Foundation, which was set up by the wife of Rwandan President Paul Kagame to support education and welfare projects and which has expanded to support young people starting up businesses.
Update: May 2010
Progress: A project database has been established to keep track of participants in the program. This will enable ongoing monitoring of each participant: the training they undertake; mentoring they receive; and what employment they attain. This will greatly assist project performance monitoring, and provide understanding of how training and mentoring opportunities have benefited each participant as well as what they go on to achieve.
Meetings have been held with church groups and business owners to find willing mentors.
Challenges: Some of the challenges this project has been encountering so far include the ability to sign-up mentors – business owners have been quite busy and hard to pin down. The lack of formal business councils and associations or chamber of commerce to work through compounds this challenge. It has been time-consuming to sell the benefits to the business community and not easy to find people that are willing to lend their time. Some business owners are primarily interested in what they can achieve out of the partnership with World Vision rather than focused on the opportunity to help those within their community.
The opportunity to unite business owners through this project and establish a local chamber of commerce is therefore evident, and this opportunity will be explored in the coming months.
Update: September 2009
To kick things off, the project team has been talking to young people in the target areas about the types of support they need most. The team has also been identifying potential partners from the local business community who can assist with training and mentoring. Work with the first group of young entrepreneurs will commence in late 2009.