$40 buys a truckload of rocks and a future

Fatima with the freshly-dug trench, ready for for a new stone wall.

It's going to take 100 loads of rocks at $40 a truckload to build a wall around Fatima's land. Buy a truckload of rocks and donate $40 here. (www.bpeace.org/donate)

Here's the backstory
Fatima employs 77 women carpenters and furniture-makers in Afghanistan who work during the frigid winters and blistering summers in a tent. 18 months ago the tent collapsed due to heavy snow. Bpeace, Beyond the 11th and Care, helped Fatima get up and running again in a new tent on land she rented.

Fatima needs a permanent furniture factory. Earlier this year, Bpeacers including architect Lisa Dubin, importer Wendy Summer, and host company Duc Duc raised the remaining $5,500 Fatima need to buy her land.

Now, as an interim step, another organization will build a few rooms to get her factory started, if Fatima can get a wall built to safeguard the new construction.

Enter you. A $40 philanthropist with generosity in your heart and a credit card to pay for some rocks.

Got an extra $40? Celebrating a 40th birthday? Got 4 friends who will tell 4 friends? You know exactly where your money is going: a truckload of rocks in Afghanistan that is building a future for brave women carpenters and their families.

Give your tax deductible $40 here. www.bpeace.org/donate

THANKS.

Young Professionals host successful Beauty School fundraising event

The Bpeace Young Professionals Committee hosted a full-house crowd at New York City's Mansion on February 26th. More than 400 people came together to celebrate and support Rwandan progress and raise funds for Rwanda's first Beauty Vocational School.

Bpeace Associates and Beauty School founders Jeanette and Sylvie are so grateful, and asked us to relay this personal message to all supporters: "Thank you for providing opportunity to those who had no hope and from which we can pass skills and build a better Rwanda of tomorrow. On behalf of all the Rwandan Bpeace entrepreneurs, we want you to know that your presence is a motivation for us to do what is right and make sure this beauty project is a success."

You can view photos of the evening by clicking here.

To join Bpeace Young Professionals, click here.

In all businesses, being the best you can be

As a traveling mentor, Craig Baker is offering a rare two-week best practice intensive in funeral service practices to one of Bpeace's Associates in Rwanda.

Languida (above with Craig) owns Kigali's only full-service funeral business, and Craig is spending every day with her reviewing her practices, visiting morgues and cemetaries, and casket manufacturers. He is presenting new ways of handling bodies within Rwandan culture and training her in family-oriented grief procedures.

The respect on both sides is mutual. "Languida is a very remarkable woman, and I believe she can be quite successful as a funeral director. Hopefully, I can help her attain her goals," said Craig.

On the building-business side he is also introducing marketing materials, like mourning cards.

Languida has long wanted a church truck (see above) and Craig generously brought her one from the U.S.

Turning on the HR light in Rwanda

Bpeacer and HR pro Phyllis Rosen (above right) is spending two weeks with our Rwanda Associates combining both classroom and one-on-one onsite work.

There are very few HR professionals in Rwanda and there is a long way to go to integrate professional practices in the public and private sector. In fact, Phyllis said there is so little HR infrastructure in the country that each and every dismissal must be approved by the government Labor Inspector so that fairness to employees will be guaranteed. Phyllis would like to link the fledgling HR community international associations.

Phyllis' training sessions are covering interviewing, job descriptions, motivating your staff and providing coaching and feedback. She brought along a performance management model.

Here's is some classroom feedback. "We went through an exercise where we looked at jobs they had and really broke them down into responsibilities of the job, skills, and qualifications. This was a real eye opener for the group. They truly got the fact that no one may like writing a job description, but it's critical to identifying the skill you really need for the job. They also learned to interview in a private room or spot, to treat a candidate respectfully even if you have no intention of hiring him or her, go through the cv, etc."

"The conversation about the pros and cons of hiring relatives to work for you was pretty funny and spirited--basically, two of the Associates said close relatives stole from them. But outside of stealing, it’s hard to fire a relative. So why hire them unless they have the perfect skill set you need?"

Why one woman built the only amusement park in Rwanda

Sylvie, one of our Rwandan Associates, owns and operates an amusement park in Kigali. Bpeacer Sabra Richardson once rhetorically asked, "After the genocide saw 900,000 people killed in 90 days, where in her mind did Sylvie come up with the idea of an amusement park?"

The trade magazine Funworld reveals the backstory. "I realized that in our society, it is the men who attend most recreation activities," Sylvie explained. "The women and children are left at home. Even when they were taken along, children were mere spectators; they were not provided for. This void had to be filled. I had an idea of a family outing in my mind as I embarked on expanding my business."

Today Sylvie's Bambino Super City has 100 employees, rides for children, picnic areas for families, a large swimming pool, and no competitors. As you will read in Funworld, she is also struggling with repaying her bank loan, though the trade magazine has the amount wrong. It's not $181 million, but rather $181,000 (that's a relief).

What's next for Sylvie? She is planning an adjacent botanical garden and perhaps a mobile amusement park. Sylvie also runs a successful beauty salon. Together with another Bpeace Associate--Jeanne--they are the founding partners of the Rwanda Beauty Vocational School that Bpeace is helping them launch. (Above, Sylvie is giving Bpeacer Barbara Bylenga the hug of a lifetime during the September Bpeace mission.)

How one woman built one of Afghanistan's first gas-station convenience stores

When Hossai (not her real name) came to the U.S. in October as part of BART, she reported how thugs, crime and kidnappings were destabilizing the formerly very safe Afghan province of Herat. Security has improved a bit since then and so has the quality of life thanks to Hossai. She just opened one of Afghanistan's first gas-station convenience stores, thanks to ideas she picked up while at host companies during BART (Bpeace Apprentice Road Trip) and the $3,000 she won for the best Bpeace Forward Plan. Hossai's host companies were Gulf Oil, Alliance Energy and Mutual Oil. (At right, that's a happy customer, not Hossai who we can't show for security reasons.)

In only four months, Hossai conducted a market survey; rented space next to one of her client's gas stations; improved the fixtures; stocked it with food, drinks and other items; and hired a store manager--a man from an extremely poor family who is supporting 8 people. As anyone who has been to Afghanistan can attest, by the looks of this photo, this is one spiffy looking convenience store.

Bpeacer George Matouk, who accompanied Hossai on some of her visits said, "I can't believe how quickly she did this. One host company talked a lot about how competitive the fuel market was and how they attempted various strategies to generate additional profits. One strategy was to offer additional goods and services to the customers who were captive briefly for purchase of fuel. One of the executives said that they sell gas as a service to people that they wanted to sell the higher margin snacks and drinks to. Hossai picked up on it completely."

How one woman became Rwanda's only funeral services provider...and about the traveling mentors on the way to her

Languida was originally a tailor. Then one day a customer came to pick up an outfit for a lost relative, exhausted and confused at having been around to shops to place orders for flowers and other funeral items. "She was my friend," said Languida, "and I felt I should do more to help by having everything needed for burial under one roof. When one loses a relative, if I can help that person not to experience a physical stress, I feel like I have consoled that person."

Languida's business is five years old, and she still doesn't have any competitors. "People are yet to embrace the business, they still see it as luxury having to hire services to cater for the dead yet it is helping and necessary."

One of Bpeace's unique differentiators is that we connect our Associates with experienced technical and functional advisors. Up until now, Bpeace did not have a funeral director in our ranks. But thanks to a shout out to the National Funeral Directors Association, this Friday Craig Baker will be leaving his home in Pennsylvania to help Languida improve the services her staff provides in comforting grieving families and personalizing the funeral experience.

Languida will also be spending time with a second traveling mentor, retired HR professional Phyllis Rosen from New York. One of the original Bpeace members who joined in 2002, Phyllis will be conducting HR workshops and providing coaching for all our Associates. Human Resources management is a new science in Rwanda. Common HR practice is to hire relatives or people you know and to poach good workers from other businesses. There is little loyalty, and often mistrust among workers and employers. Phyllis will have two new Bpeace workbooks in her bag of tricks along with experienced gained on the job at Ogilvy and Bankers Trust.

More crates are the key to Pascasie staying in business in Rwanda

“Last month I acquired more than 2,000 crates of my own and Bralirwa has positioned me among its good standing agents. My efforts to avoid elimination among the agents have been successful. Today I am not only staying on Bralirwa’s team of agents but I am also rising the top. My strongest competitor wanted to throw me out of business because I was stopped by the city mayor from operating in unfinished construction space. After working on what I was requested to do, I am now about to receive a permit to return to the space. All this tremendous progress has not been achieved by my efforts alone, Bpeace has been my guardian. I received a Bpeace EDF loan to increase the number of my crates. This was a condition from Bralirwa the beverage company to all agents who are in good standing. It has always been Bpeace staff on the ground that helped me negotiate with the city mayor in doing the construction as well as keeping my business operation going. Three years ago, I was pessimistic on the future of my business, today am optimistic about the possibility of being in the first 5 strong agents.”

Editor’s note: Bpeace and Fina Bank collaborated to provide Pascasie with a Bpeace Economic Development loan to purchase the new crates. Pascasie’s 20 workers support 206 family members.

Habiba learns about US food safety and starts cleaning up in Afghanistan

“Sanitation and safety are the two main areas that are not explored much in Afghanistan especially in Kabul. Before BART, I encountered a lot of problems because some of my products turned bad after a short period of time. I also struggled to sell my products and most of my money was sleeping on the shelves of multiple stores while I needed to have money to buy more raw materials. By visiting several host companies which has been made possible by Bpeace in the US, I found out how sanitation and safety are important. Now, I take safety and sanitation precautions with my employees such as use of hair covers, gloves, aprons, and washing hands before touching food, etc. I also decided to switch from plastic jars with fair quality to glass bottles and use PH # indicator for the right amount of acidity for pickles and chutneys and put jam and jelly in glass jars at boiling point. The quality of my products has already improved and my packaging system is more appealing to the customers and market. The people in Afghanistan have to have pickles and chutney at their dinning table at all times, it is almost a ritual for them.”

Editor’s note: Habiba spent most of October in Maine, apprenticing at food processing companies as part of BART (Bpeace Apprentice Road Trip.) Her 8 workers support 56 family members.

Harriet expands her beauty salon with help of Bpeace EDF loan

"I recently reopened my beauty salon, and it's now that I believe the name New Generation is holding a meaning. I upgraded the space, added new services (including a men's shampoo room) and bought nice equipment. The Bpeace Economic Developement fund helped me accelerate my business and I hope to get further by adding more services as well as increasing more job opportunities. The tight competition we are facing today in the beauty industry has no chance with me after this renovation."

Editor's note: Harriet's 15 employees support 71 family members.