Women Experiencing Change in Artisans Cooperatives

    The women involved in the artisan cooperatives in Rwanda have experienced various changes from their participation in the cooperatives. Compelling stories of changes in diet, finances, family dynamics, community, concerns, daily life, future goals, and change in self emerged as themes regarding empowerment of women participants in artisan cooperatives. The participatory rural appraisal techniques provided an environment to capture responses in community.  The use of these techniques along with focus groups and interviews allowed me to capture the changes the women have experienced. My photos document both their participation in the activities and their daily work.

Changes in Diet

    Being a part of a cooperative and having a more stable income allowed many women to experience the typical three meals a day. Some of the cooperatives provided morning tea or lunch for those working. Such changes gave the women even greater courage to try other foods they previously avoided buying. Women mentioned the freedom that came from having a consistent salary. There was no fear in where the next meal would come from. They now dared to buy sugar or go to the supermarket and purchase items they would have previously never have felt bold enough to have purchased before.

    The women from Rwanda said adults did not consume fruits that often. One participant said that they were told babies needed fruit so they would give fruit to children and not eat it themselves. After being a part of the cooperative, they were able to learn more about the importance of fruit in their diet. Komera Creative experienced the greatest change in their fruit consumption which increased by three days a week.

 

    Another cultural component to one food item was milk. In Rwanda, milk is a culture. It is featured on the national currency, and milk bars (imagine an alcoholic bar but with milk instead) are found throughout every town. Women in Umutima consumed milk 3.7 times a week before being a part of the cooperative, but it changed to 5.4 after participating in the cooperative. The women in Komera had lactose intolerant individuals, so they avoided milk. Yet both groups mentioned that in Rwanda, you knew you were destitute if you could not afford to buy milk even once a week for morning or afternoon tea.

Changes in Family Dynamics

    The women in the cooperatives discussed all the hours of unpaid work they contributed towards helping their families before being a part of the cooperative. Many women had no jobs and most expressed how their family members saw them as nothing and not contributing towards their family’s wellbeing. One woman from Komera Creative said she had family members who did not know she existed before working in the cooperative because she could not help them but now that she has a job, they see value in her. Some assets have greater value and many of the women described how they had little value before because they had no economic output. Family members saw women who stayed at home as lazy and disrespected them. They also described husbands as more controlling of their marriage if they were not working. There was an overall concern voiced on how they lacked the ability to discuss financial, social, and family issues with their husbands because they were not contributing towards family expenses.

    All the women from Komera Creative described how before bringing in a consistent income their children said as mothers, they could not punish them because it was their fathers who did that. The women were now paying school fees for their children, so they showed more respect towards their mothers rather than just their fathers. This dynamic changed because of their consistent income they were bringing into their families

Change in Self

    Not only did women see changes in how their families saw them but they also discussed how they viewed themselves differently. They grew in the skills they had acquired from their job. They also had grown in their confidence in themselves. Women in Umutima learned how to beautifully create hand stitched birds on various bags. The women doing the hand stitching shared with me how they had previously only sewed by hand to fix clothes at home, but they have the ability now to create different animals and shapes like those depicted below.

    Many women became leaders in both the cooperatives and communities. In all locations the women discussed how having a job now gave them value. They expressed how their confidence had grown in themselves and of their ability to accomplish a variety of tasks.  The women in Rwanda were still confident and expressed they felt they had changed and grown but many still expressed fear from the previous violence of the 1994 Genocide and how it impacted their lives. Jesse from Komera Creative seen below lost most of her family during the genocide so she is the sole provider for her children. She expressed how she was forced to be a leader and grow in confidence. As a mother she had no choice to fail because then she would be failing not only herself but her children. Having a job in the cooperative gave her greater confidence in providing for her children. I visited her home, and she was happy to show off all the new renovations she had done because of her job. She expressed a confidence that indicated she was not scared about the future because she was prepared.

 

    The women also exuded confidence and pride in the industry they worked in. They saw value in it and wanted to share it with others. In Umutima the cooperative conducts tours around the workshop and community for added income. While there, whenever I asked about how a product was made or made comments about the colors the women would start sharing more about what it was and how the item was made. At Komera I was discussing with the women how their sewing on treadle sewing machines looked hard and must take some sort of extreme talent. They then said that they had learned and so could I, so they proceeded to teach me how to use the machine to make a simple gitenge napkin as I had discussed in my previous blog. I took about 30 minutes to sew such a simple item while they finished a whole napkin and placemat set within the next 30 minutes. They were so happy to share their craft and talents with me and others who were interested in learning more.

    Walking into both cooperatives in Rwanda I saw women dressed in African skirts, dresses, and shirts. They seemed to be happy to show off the colors they were wearing. The change in self is not only an inner feeling of confidence but also an outward portrayal. One woman from Komera mentioned how because being a part of the cooperative she has learned from the others how to dress well. Some women were wearing gitenge fabric dresses or simply nice clothes like those below.

 

The women shared how having other women allowed them to discuss women issues like wanting to look good and how they could improve their outfits. At Komera Josie makes dresses and often makes dresses for the other women that work at the cooperative. One of the concerns brought up in the Priority Matrix Activity with Komera was the need for nice clothes and body lotion. Before the cooperative, the women shared how not having nice clothes was how they valued themselves. If you had clothes that were dirty or worn out, then they did not see themselves as having much value. I asked about the body lotion as well because I was intrigued by why that was something they saw as being important before. The women said dry skin meant you could not afford to maintain the appearance of a woman so then you understood how destitute you were. After being a part of the cooperative clothes and body lotion were not a priority because they could afford them.

    One participant in Komera said how when she was home alone and faced issues with her period or other feminine specific health issues, she never was able to discuss them with others, so she suffered through her issues. That changed when she was able to be with the other women every day. Gabriel from Komera mentioned how with a consistent income and job she could now afford to go to the “good doctors.” At Komera the women discussed how when they were sick, they would just go to a pharmacy and get some medicine and hope it would resolve their sickness. They had no clue what they were suffering from but thought something was better than nothing to take for their ailment.

    Women specifically from Umutima and Komera discussed how working with other women also helped them heal from the previous emotional trauma they experienced from the genocide. At Umutima one women mentioned how she always had her old memories of the genocide and would be so emotional about it. Coming to work she now had other people who had experienced similar things, so she was able to freely discuss them with the other women in a healthier atmosphere instead of keeping everything bottled up inside.

Changes in Community

    Before being a part of the cooperative many of the women discussed how coming to work provided them a community of support. When the end of the workday was over, all the women were yelling to each other saying goodbye or walking home in groups together. Many women discussed the feelings of being alone before the cooperative and not having friends. Neighbors and family around them did not see them as having value when they were alone at home. Now they saw those they worked with as close friends and looked forward to coming to work.

Changes in Finance

    Each cooperative had women who discussed how they felt less stress and anxiety now because they had a consistent income. They also mentioned that there was added pressure and problems in their life with additional income. In the Financial Preparedness Activity all cooperatives reported a positive change in their confidence in being more financially prepared. As Figure 28 shows all cooperatives showed major changes in how much more confident, they felt now as compared to before being a part of the cooperative

    In Komera the women discussed how school fees were always a pressing issue and something they previously struggled to come up with. Yet now with a consistent income they are better at saving and in being able to send their children to school. Being able to afford quality healthcare was another issue discussed. When medical emergencies came about, women in the cooperatives felt more confident now in being able to afford such costs.

Changes in Concerns

    The concerns the women had before being a part of the cooperative to what they were concerned about now changed. Concerns shifted to larger concerns rather than daily life or basic necessities. Umutima and Komera operate differently but still discussed how the Covid-19 pandemic was a main concern for them. The pandemic meant less tourists or visitors so that meant they had less customers. At Umutima one of the leaders told me how they had the desire to get into the digital market with their products so they could overcome the impacts of the pandemic. At Komera they sell some of their products to other international groups but still do not have an online marketplace. Gabriel of Komera told me that she hopes soon they can find a way to gain access to more international consumers so they would not be concerned about having no customers. This is where I saw a need that I felt my project could help to solve. I hope to create a digitial platform for Komera. By creating videos and highlighting the artisan’s skills I think I can help create a story that will bring customers from all over the world to their shop both in person and online.