My last blog from Rwanda

Reflecting on my time in Rwanda, I would have to say the most gratifying part of my visit here has been the growth in self-awareness of the women and their management styles as a result of the Human Resources Management workshop. Even the one who ran in and out of the training a million times to take and make phone calls told me in a follow-up visit that she now gets it – her employees are important, they represent her business and she wouldn’t want to be treated the way she treats them – “barking orders at them like a policeman!.” That apparently is the boss’ way in Rwanda.

The leitmotif of the workshop was “Catch your employee doing something right,” the idea being to praise employees so they’ll continue doing what they do well. I think the women liked the idea but it is not an especially promoted management practice in the country. The idea of saying “thank you” to the employee does not seem to be a natural part of the culture of the workplace here.

The Customer Service Workshop that another Bpeace member delivered both this year and last, has had great resonance with the Associates (our women) and their staff. Remarkably, what is called Customer Care in this country has its own department in the government – it is considered a critical government initiative.

A woman I met yesterday is a fast-talking charming dynamo named Bea (above), who is head of Customer Care for a large bank here, BCR. I had heard that she did free workshops on Customer Care which is why I wanted to meet with her. Once Bea heard what we were trying to do, she agreed to meet with our women for free once a month, or however often we wanted, to reinforce the training they had already had. This is one of the things I really like about this country and is strikingly different from our own, much more self-absorbed, materialistic society. People reach out and give unselfishly all the time – it is definitely a positive, inspiring characteristic.

With the two women who own hair salons, Harriett and Jeanne, (above) we talked about having customers make regular appointments so they can make sure they see their favorite stylist. This would be a big change; women now walk in and see who’s available, kind of like the old barbershop in the States. Jeanne, in concert with Sylvie, the amusement park owner, is planning to open a beauty school to train hair stylists in Kigali.

There is a big demand for what we call hair salons and they call saloons in Rwanda and most stylists come in from other countries, like Kenya, to take these jobs in Rwanda. Jeanne and Sylvie want to develop home-grown stylists. The Young Professional group in Bpeace has adopted this project and threw a terrific fundraiser in NY for the beauty school here a few weeks ago. This school is really going to happen and if you’d like to help, check out our website on the school: http://www.rwandabeautyschool.org/

The picture you see here is of me and Speciose, pointing to the land she just bought where she is determined to build a hotel, conference center, reception halls and a restaurant ; this is in addition to the flower store and party event company she has which I mentioned in the first blog. (A total aside: Calla lilies are grown here and cost about $0.25 each, that’s right, 25 cents!)

Solina (above) continued to report to work to the Ministry of Health as an anesthesiology nurse during the genocide even though she had lost her parents and four of her sisters in the violence. The work was very arduous and strenuous since the hospital was completely understaffed. In 1998 she resigned to open a nursery and landscape business, a beloved hobby which she developed into an ongoing operation. Solina and husband have three children and adopted three orphans after the genocide, as many, many families did. When we met, we drew up a job description for a business development person who would work on commission to gain more landscaping and maintenance contracts from corporations for her landscaping and nursery business.

Francoise (above) operates three related businesses – a restaurant (above), which does very well because it’s attached to a bus depot, party supply and catering. The name of Francoise’s restaurant, Amahoro, means peace, but the signage is not easily seen. So the big idea, as they say in advertising, is for Francoise to attract more customers into her restaurant by improving the signage and even putting a sign out by the sidewalk, where there isn’t one now; Francoise’s restaurant is way back from the street behind the bus depot. So she has new signage she wants to put up with a new logo that Bpeace helped to develop. However, she is concerned that her current customers won’t think she is still attached to the business because the sign is somewhat different even though the name of the restaurant is the same. She has had the new signage for 2 years and hasn’t yet put it up because of this quandary. So we talked about her putting up the new signage next to the old, leaving it there for 6 months so her customers could get used to it, and then taking down the old signage. She liked the idea. We will see.

All these women I’ve been writing about graduate from the Bpeace three-year program in May and we hope to continue to support them on a local basis with a local volunteer network and occasional support from NY.

Some final thoughts and observations:

Like most other sane people I ridiculed Madonna/Angelina/Mia Farrow for doing these seemingly noblesse oblige adoptions in Africa. But I have to admit I now get it. I had a strong desire wash over me at a few points in my stay to adopt an orphan and take him or her home with me. Strong enough that I looked up adoption procedures on the net for Rwanda. The country prefers couples under 35 years of age but will occasionally stretch to 50. So that was that. I think Elliot was relieved…

The last Saturday of every month is national clean-up day. Everyone must go out and help clean up their neighborhood. It is a policy all who I talked to support since they like seeing their cities clean. And it is strictly enforced. If you get in your car and go out before 11 a.m., you are stopped and fined unless you have a really good reason. Your attendance is noted by the local district leader. Some citizens do sleep in, others send their maids and houseboys to do the clean up work, but most people do participate.

Our assistant program manager in Kigali, Susan, is considering other opportunities since her contract is up with Bpeace and we have had to cut costs in Rwanda until the fundraising environment improves. When I told her in the course of another conversation what nannies make here in the NYC metro area as live-ins, she was stunned and eager to explore that kind of job here for a year or so. Susan is college-educated, speaks, thinks, reads and writes in English. Trust me, this is a Rwandan Mary Poppins! I’m going to connect her to nanny employment agencies, but if you know anyone… You can check her out on the Bpeace video that’s at the bottom of all these blogs.

And finally, finally, I am so glad I went. What can I say? Enriching, inspiring and so much more. I would do this again in a heartbeat for Bpeace or any NGO. You, dear friends and family, took a chance in supporting me and I hope I haven’t let you down. I don’t want to keep blabbing about how much your support—both financial and moral—has meant, but I can’t stop. And don’t worry – no more personal appeals again!

Happy Passover and Easter,
Phyllis