SVM is a SE that was founded in January 2019 in a rural region of Rwanda. In order to bring another source of income than the typical very weather dependent agricultural activities, several women gathered and started knitting and sewing traditional Rwandese basket and clothes. With the money gathered, they hope to be able to fight money scarcity and provide for their respective families while empowering themselves and stimulating their local economy through the promotion of their culture.

Challenge

In this region, agriculture is the main source of income and its hard to juggle between feeding the family or reselling harvest to pay debts, when a choice is even possible. Also, having to focus on the day to day rather than the tomorrow, health insurance is often not affordable and if something happens to one of their children or themselves, this become a very burdensome situation. For many women this SE is an attempt to generate another independent type of revenue and break the poverty cycle.

Long-Term Impact

As they reach a sense of financial stability, these mothers would be able to break the toxic cycle of poverty from within and slowly take their villages out of the gutter while empowering women, assuring their kids and themselves better living conditions and promoting their culture through its art beyond their physical borders.

References

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