WOMEN USE TRADITIONAL SKILLS TO PROVIDE INCOMES:

Gahaya Links Highlights USADF Funding to Marginalized Group at the Grassroots Level

Gahaya Links Limited was founded in 2004 by Ms. Janet Nkubana and her sister, Joy Ndunguste, after returning to their home in Rwanda from a Ugandan refugee camp following the civil war.  Combining their experience in handicraft design and marketing the skills of rural women, many of them war widows, the sisters pioneered a new way to transform traditional basket weaving skills into high-end home decor products suitable for international export. 

In 2007, Gahaya Links sought the assistance of USADF to enhance its capacity in order to take advantage of a growing market.  USADF support helped to increase production capacity and quality control, improve inventory management and financial and administrative systems, reduce delivery times, and enhance marketing materials.

Beginning with only 27 women, Gahaya Links is now a profitable enterprise that works with 4,500 artisans in 40 cooperatives and associations established across Rwanda.  With assistance from USADF, Gahaya Links is better prepared to sell their products in major department stores in the United States, creating employment where none had existed, increasing the income of thousands of rural families, and improving the quality of life for women overcoming the scars of the Rwandan genocide.

The USADF Difference:
In addition to helping a small company increase its productivity and capacity as well as enabling it to enter the global market, USADF funds improved the economic and social conditions for poor communities in a post conflict country.  Jobs were created in urban and rural areas throughout the country, contributing to rebuilding and sustaining the national economy.

..........For more information about USADF projects in Rwanda, click here.

The United States African Development Foundation (USADF) is a United States Government agency dedicated to expanding access to economic opportunity in Africa. Currently USADF operates in 20 African nations. Over the past 25 years, USADF has directly funded nearly 1,500 African projects representing in excess of $150 million in support of African enterprises and local African communities.

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