Our Trainers
Meet Sunday, Ineza’s Managerial Assistant and In-House Trainer
Sunday is Ineza’s managerial assistant who teaches in-house English language and business classes. He is a student at Kigali’s School of Finance and Banking where he will graduate with a degree in Business Management in 2012. Sunday joined the Ineza team in late 2009 to improve Ineza members’ management, accounting, and marketing skills, which are essential for building a profitable and sustainable small business.
In weekly business classes, Sunday explains the macro and micro economic contexts in which Ineza’s work unfolds. These classes, coupled with his daily work helping cooperative members develop a business plan, are facilitating Ineza’s growth into a forward-looking business. This re-orientation toward long term goals and growth will guarantee employees an income to cover daily expenses as well as provide lasting economic empowerment and education to ensure quality of life gains in the future.
Sunday, a twenty-seven year old Kigali resident, originally from the Southern Province Nyamagabe District joined Ineza to integrate his interest in business with his dedication to grassroots development projects aimed at empowering vulnerable populations. Sunday believes that small businesses that are collectively managed are an effective mechanism for engaging poorer Rwandese citizens in their own economic enfranchisement. According to Sunday, the women of Ineza—who are grappling with the dual challenges of poverty and HIV infection—are a group who can benefit from a business model that is a reliable source of income and personal empowerment.
This model is more a sustainable way for Rwandese citizens to improve their own quality of life than dependency on direct aid from the numerous NGO’s in the country. By working collectively to both generate salaries for its employees and increase domestic and foreign demand for locally produced goods, Ineza members are securing their own financial independence and contributing to local and national economic development. According to Sunday, the cooperative is an integral part of the grassroots, small business growth in a variety of industries which is currently being promoted by the Rwandese government.
In his business classes, Sunday covers topics ranging from the economic principles dictating international trade to the distinction between retail and wholesale markets. By breaking down the input-output balance and explaining how the cost of production can be measured, Sunday provides Ineza members with a better understanding of how their labor factors into the price of finished goods. This helps the cooperative make more informed decisions regarding production and sales in retail or wholesale markets.
Sunday notes that during business classes, cooperative members are displaying a more nuanced view of how their daily work relates to Ineza’s overall profits in both the short and long term. Sunday hopes that increased business savvy will help the cooperative to innovate, diversify, and expand to guarantee its continued viability and profitability. Moreover, his weekly conversational English classes will help Ineza members communicate directly with the numerous foreign customers that shop at the cooperative and come to craft fairs in Kigali.
His work at Ineza not only benefits cooperative members, but it also provides Sunday with work experience that informs his current university studies and will help him achieve his goal of starting his own small business. As an orphan who understands the importance of employment and education for personal empowerment, Sunday hopes to one day employ and provide on-the-job training for young adults who are also orphans. At Ineza, Sunday has learned the importance of collective decision making and continued education in the workplace, and he wants to draw on these lessons in this plan to provide opportunities for economic advancement to orphans.
In addition to working at Ineza, Sunday is also active in the organization Orphans of Rwanda (ORI) of which he is a member. This organization promotes educational access for orphans and Sunday was a past member of the group’s Student Government Association. When Sunday is not busy with his studies, Ineza, and work at ORI, he also enjoys traveling and has visited countries throughout East Africa including Kenya, Uganda, and Burundi.
Joseph and Augustin: Ineza’s Volunteer Computer Trainers
Joseph and Augustin are peer leaders in WE-ACTx’s Youth Program and volunteer trainers at Ineza. The two young men are dedicated to the education of and advocacy for their peers coping with HIV+ status and related stigma. At Ineza, Joseph and Augustin conduct bi-weekly, one-on-one computer training sessions for cooperative members. They are currently teaching the women of Ineza how to use Microsoft Word and Excel and the Internet. Both Joseph and Augustin are full-time students in Kigali—Joseph entering his final year of secondary school and Augustin entering secondary five.
In their role as WE-ACTx peer leaders, Joseph and Augustin work in the organization’s Sunday Children’s Support Group and a four-week long summer camp for HIV+ youth in Kigali. WE-ACTx staff members (including trauma nurses, community organizers, and psychosocial counselors) have trained Joseph and Augustin in HIV/AIDS health education, leading confidence-building exercises, public speaking, and conflict resolution. They draw on this training when they each lead a group of thirty children every Sunday and during the summer camp. With their groups Joseph and Augustin play games, give lessons on healthy living, and provide advice on how to overcome stigma encountered in the home, neighborhood, and school. They use their own example as successful students and active community members to inspire their younger peers.
At Ineza, Joseph and Augustin’s computer training sessions are very popular and cooperative members have reported that learning how to use computers is challenging, exciting, and fulfilling. With an eye toward opportunities for Internet marketing and setting up email correspondence with interested customers, Joseph and Augustin hope that their trainings will help Ineza expand as a business. Moreover, they are confident that computer trainings will provide individual members with new communication and research tools that are valuable both inside and outside of the workplace.
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