Update from BHW Rwanda Partnership Facilitators

Key People:  George & Jemima Gatete

The outbreak of Ebola in the Congo caused our trip to be cancelled due to partners there not being able to come across the border, so the decision was made not to go as it was a lot of funds just to visit one partnership in Rwanda. We therefore caught up with George and Jemima online via Teams.

George currently still works for Young Life, but now the role involves travels to 15 countries to assist in development and training. He is away for a lot of the year. Jemima has a role working for Correct Book, an NGO who tries to sell erasable notebooks so children can learn to write without having to fund paper all the time. She works with NGO’s, churches and schools, but probably due to the cost they are proving “tricky to sell”.

George’s sister Mary who is involved in the partnership is doing fine. They lost their father who died after a short battle with cancer in October 2025, he was aged 93.

Prices for goods and services in Rwanda have gone very high, due to impacts of fuel costs which have doubled recently with a litre of fuel going from 1,500 francs (US$1) to 3,000 francs (US$2).

Recent Events

Activities

The training courses for young women who are struggling in poverty and teenage pregnancies have continued to run, in both Kigali and Musanze. This was from the funds Bright Hope World sent in November 2025 (US$3,825).

George and Jemima say the rate of teenage pregnancies is getting worse as because of poverty girls are having to sell themselves as the only way to make a living. Plus, social media, where they are trying to get followers is forcing girls to put some sad content online that leads down a desperate path.

Musanze:
Tailoring course for 10 students for six months.
Hairdressing course for 11 students for six months.

Kigali:
Hairdressing course for 10 students (4 pulled out) for 3 months.

We discussed what impact was being made on the lives of the youth after the training had been completed. George says the impact is “50/50”. Some girls are getting part-time jobs in tailoring, when the demand is high in tailoring shops. For hairdressers, they might get 5 clients a month to use their skills.

There is an issue where only some of the girls can get gainful employment or start businesses due to lack of space or equipment to set up the businesses.

The aim is to focus on fewer girls and get them set up in business rather than just training a lot of people.

They had investigated renting a space where both the trainings and business centre could be set up. With the costs in Rwanda going very high they have an issue of a lack of funds to do this.

They are in discussions with Jemima’s father who may be willing to partner with them as he has a space that could be used. Jemima’s auntie Rose is also having discussions to be the person who would run the training and business centre as she has experience in various businesses.

Below are the details of the young mums that have been enrolled for the training of hairdressing: 

1) Isimbi Sandrine: 18 years, has 1 child who is almost 2
2)  Manishimwe Claudine: 20 years has 1 child who is 3
3)  Uwase Adeline: 16 years, has 1 child of 4 months
4) Ingabire Nadia: 18 years, has 1 child of 1 year and 5 months
5) Umuhoza Gloria: 20 years, has 1 child who is 2
6) Uwizeyiman Alice: 19 years, has 1 child who is 3
7) Akayezu Yvette: 18 years, has 1 child who is 1
8) Ingabire: 17 years, has 1 child who is 7 months
9) Niyomugeni Sara: 17 years has 1 child who is 1
10) Mukangarambe Divine: 24 years, has two kids of 2 & 6 years

Ideas for the Future

They are planning to get Angelique Mukashyaka, a girl who was trained, does have a job and now encourages and trains other girls, to organise a reunion of all the trained girls. At this reunion they will find out the impact of the training on their lives and ask the girls what would be helpful now.

After this they will send us an updated report, plus a proposal for the future as to how they can invest more into helping these girls to become more economically sustainable.

Comments

We have suggested to them that they do a report on the current course and also tell us what they are thinking for the future. We stressed to them that from our perspective it is better to do a deep work with a few rather than just train lots of people and leave them. 

We are planning to visit Rwanda in the second half of 2027.