Bpeace Official Blog

Bountiful futures

Posted on 23. May, 2010 by Sabra Richardson in 2. Rwanda, Bpeace Blog

What a closing day it was on Friday.  Fran’s presentation on personal finance introduced new concepts of salary budgeting, saving, compound interest.  Those Bpeace calculators were working and the women admitted that they never thought about their money in that way.

The bankers from Banque Populaire Du Rwanda showed up in there street banking outfits that they wear when they go into the community, and explained the banking account process and offered to come to the Sweet Dreams Ice Cream shop and open accounts for the employees.  Fran made a donation to the cooperative for those women that needed a deposit to open one.  Having the job with Sweet Dreams will add extra income to the micro businesses that most of them have.

The final ceremony took place at the Credo Hotel across the road from Sweet Dreams. Great Food, wonderful speeches from the women and a wonderful surprise.  They asked us to cover our eyes and when we opened them there were three thank you baskets carved in wood and designed by Sandra the. VP of the Sweet Dreams Ice Cream Cooperative.  It was filled with fruit to represent how bountiful they now felt and that the seeds that we planted in the training will bear fruit equal to what we have in the basket.  Need I say more.