Akilah Students Create Lasting Social Change in Their Communities

All Akilah students complete a Social Change Project in their final year.

Every year, our final-year students venture outside the classroom to bring lasting solutions and positive change to vulnerable communities through a required Social Change Project. These projects are part of Akilah’s leadership curriculum and an essential component of the students’ journey to becoming community leaders and role models.

The Social Change Project equips students to be changemakers in society and their communities, according to Paul Swaga, Program Manager of Akilah’s CORE Program, which includes training in leadership and social change.

“Our students go out to visit challenged communities, sit with community members, identify the problems they are facing, and come up with practical solutions. To me that shows that they are growing into people who will transform society. They know that to create real, lasting change, you can’t just assume what the communities’ needs are. You need to create a platform where you hear them out — don’t impose solutions, but brainstorm together. Our students are becoming responsive to the needs of society, and that’s what leadership is all about: to think on behalf of the people you are leading,” Paul explains.

“That’s what leadership is all about: to think on behalf of the people you are leading.”

During February and March, the Class of 2017 implemented their social change projects in groups. From teaching women’s cooperatives new skills in financial management and customer service, to producing washable sanitary pads with community health workers, to raising awareness about nutrition and gender equality, the students have worked hard to create a positive impact in vulnerable communities in and around Kigali.

Read on to learn about three Social Change Projects by the Class of 2017.

Using Basic Financial Skills as a Way Forward

Drive down a long, bumpy road away from one of Kigali’s wealthy areas, and you’ll find the small community of Kabungo. Many of Kabungo’s residents used to live in the center of Kigali, but when their land was bought to build expensive properties, they resettled to Kabungo with the small monetary compensation they received.

But settling into a new community with few job opportunities has been hard — especially for unemployed women with no or very little education. A group of these women started a cooperative to produce and sell soap, but business is slow, and they struggle to afford the materials to produce the soap.

A group of Akilah’s Entrepreneurship students started working with the women to teach them basic financial skills and help them find ideas and the courage to venture into new micro-businesses.

Akilah students taught women in a soap-making cooperative basic financial skills.

“We found that the cooperative is making soap but not selling enough. We have been training them to be able to develop financial planning goals and make a budget so they know if their business is viable. We found out that currently they don’t make enough money for production. A lot of these women have other small businesses on the side, like selling vegetables in the market, so we talked to them about using their other businesses to generate the revenue they need to make soap. We want to encourage them to set goals and make things happen instead of waiting for change,” explains Marie Reìne Umugabekazi from Akilah’s Entrepreneurship Class of 2017.

“We want to encourage them to set goals and make things happen instead of waiting for change.”

Through different activities and trainings, the Akilah students engaged with the women about idea generation, saving, and financial management.

“We interact with them and we can see how they’re slowly changing their mindset. Now they see a way forward, they see hope, and they are starting to generate new ideas for moving forward,” Marie Reìne says.

Improving Personal Hygiene With Washable Sanitary Pads

A group of women have gathered in the local community center in Kimihurura, a neighborhood in central Kigali. They are measuring, cutting, and sewing washable sanitary pads with guidance from a group of Akilah students.

The women are community health workers, and the Akilah students are teaching them to make sanitary pads from a simple design that uses local fabric and clothes. The health workers are learning how to teach other women to produce the pads as well.

Akilah students taught health workers to make sanitary pads from local fabric.

“We got the idea because we wanted to improve hygiene and sanitation in the community. We discovered that a lot of women can’t afford proper pads, and they end up using inconvenient and unhygienic options, which can cause infections and other health problems. We were trained by a man who is certified to make these types of pads, and he agreed to help us,” explains Sonia Umutoni, who studies entrepreneurship at Akilah.

Next, the women will receive training on how to properly wash the pads , and then they are ready to go into production. As a cooperative of health workers, the women are already thinking about how they can turn this into a social business.

“I have two teenage girls at home, and this will help us to save money now that I can make pads for them,” says Hadidja Nikuze, a health worker.

One of the health workers, Hadidja Nikuze, believes the project will have a great positive impact — both in the community and for her personally.

“It’s a good idea to teach us in the community — it makes us feel comfortable because we already know each other. We are health workers, so in many ways we are the voice of the community, and we can train other women to also make the pads,” she says.

“I have two teenage girls at home, and this will help us to save money now that I can make pads for them,” she adds.

Encouraging Customer Care and Teamwork

A group of Hospitality students have worked closely with a women’s tailor cooperative in Kininya, which is just 15 minutes from Akilah’s campus.

For the tailors in the cooperative, attracting and maintaining customers is a big challenge. The Akilah students decided to work with them to find a solution.

Akilah students taught women in a tailor cooperative about customer service and teamwork.

“These tailors make very nice things, but they struggle to get customers. We are Hospitality Management students so we wanted to use our knowledge and experience to train them in customer care to strengthen their business. It’s a nice way for us to practice what we learn in the classroom,” explains Hyguette Ikuze, who will graduate from Akilah this year.

After sitting down with the cooperative, it became clear that the tailors lacked customer care and teamwork skills.

“We spent a lot of time talking about receiving customers in a welcoming way and working together to attract more customers. It’s important for these women to show themselves and their husbands that they are capable of contributing financially to the household. If they work together as a team, they can increase profit and thereby independence,” Hyguette says.

“It’s important for these women to show themselves and their husbands that they are capable of contributing financially to the household. If they work together as a team, they can increase profit and thereby independence.”

After setting an action plan and completing tests on customer service, personal hygiene, and teamwork, the cooperative and Akilah students decided to stay in touch and keep working towards attracting more customers.

The president of the cooperative was optimistic that the training sessions would have a positive impact on business.

“We are so happy you chose to work with us,” she told the Akilah students. “We were reminded that as women we can speak our minds, work hard, and make our own income.”