Meet Marie Rose!
She’s a 31-yr old mom of two living in the Coko sector of northern Rwanda. We first met Marie Rose in 2016 when she and her family were suddenly forced to leave their home because they were living in a high-risk landslide zone, but they couldn’t afford to build a new house right away, so their neighbors took them in. Shortly after, her farm was indeed wiped out by a landslide and we helped her replant her coffee trees in a new location.
Then, in 2019, she applied to the Kula Fellowship.
At the beginning of the fellowship…
She struggled to create a household vision simply because she found the realities of achieving her goals, especially that of starting her own business, too hard to overcome. However, her mind changed and confidence grew quickly as she moved through our program. Marie Rose went from being too shy to speak in front of people to being elected group leader, leading 16 women through the fellowship. After the initial difficulties of setting her goals, she soon set seven.
- Cement the walls of her home on the inside and
- Own her own home kitchen garden
- Send both of her boys to school
- Understand female health and and practice proper hygiene
- Expand her family’s dietary variance
- Raise livestock
- Start her own weaving business with her own storefront
Once she set her goals, she and her husband Flavier built an action plan, so they had a step-by-step roadmap to ensure their success. Some of those steps included: gaining access to a proper financial institution, so they could start and protect their savings, proper care for their coffee farm, so they could increase quantity and quality, and building a covered latrine so their whole family could practice good home and body hygiene.
During her 15 months with us…
She worked towards all of those goals. She saved enough money to cement their home, her boys are now in school and she has access to and is using birth control. Marie Rose purchased two goats, two pigs and a cow, planted 200 passion fruit seeds, and she has a healthy kitchen garden and uses her vegetable harvest everyday, so her family has balanced meals.
While she found all of our training helpful, she speaks most about the self-esteem training because she believes it helped make her who she’s become. It made her believe all of her dreams were possible. Her far-fetched dream of having her own weaving business is now a reality. She has her own storefront and after winning Kula’s business competition, she was able to purchase high-quality materials and advanced machinery. Now, she’s making and selling her own designs while also taking custom orders. Additionally, she’s training others on the advanced machines. Flavier, her husband, signed up to be her first student.
After graduating the Kula program, she’s ready to continue to work on her family’s growth and has set her sights on starting a new coffee farm.
