Empowering genocide widows

Victorine Mukabadenge is 67 years old. She is a genocide survivor who lives in the Gihago Sector of Rutsiro district. She is one of the widows who is benefiting from the EVKREP project. She attended entrepreneurship training and later took a loan to start her small business to be able to start an income generating activity. She borrowed 270,000 Rwf ($260) and started up a boutique with a mix of different items commonly needed in her neighbourhood.  

“I am very thankful to this project. Before joining, I used to stay at home waiting for  people to come and help me, and I was very weak due to back problems because of sleeping too much. After joining the project I managed to meet other widows and we exchanged ideas and feelings. Affer training, I took a loan and started this business of a boutique where Iam able to generate income of between 30,000 - 40,000 Rwf per month ($40), which is helping me a lot to be able to resolve small problems related to basic needs. I will not stop taking loans because I want to expand my business in the future”.

Victorine appreciated the ideas generated during the livelihoods program of training before receiving money. The training has helped her deal with customers using the skills learned. She loves different topics learnt in the training, including customer care, marketing, working with financial institutions among others.