My name is Mukamuhoza Mamerita, I am the President of one of the weaving cooperatives which has 130 women weavers.  We leave in Kiyombe one of the most remote villages in Rwanda’s eastern province. Most of the women in my cooperative lived on subsistence farming with no source of income.Under the support of PPPMER, I and eight other women from my village were asked to attend a weaving training course at Gahaya Links. Since we started weaving baskets and other items, the women have earned an income and improved their lifestyle. We can now afford food, clothing, tuition for our children and health insurance.
As the leader of my cooperative, I have dedicated my time to the well being of all the women. I make sure that we invite as many women in the community as we can to join us. Our lives have changed and we want everyone to benefit. When we opened a savings account for the cooperative, Gahaya Links educated us on how to start savings circles. In these circles, we started to build a house for the women in the poorest living conditions, Today, we have completed 25 iron sheet roofed houses and we are still going strong. Our goal is that every weaver in our group will leave in a decent home where she feels proud to home, where our children can play and live a normal life which we didn’t have while growing up.