Dear John,

As we continue looking at our work around gender-based violence (GBV) with communities in Rwanda as part of our Cultivating Change appeal, we hear from one of the women who is now advocating for our latest initiative.

So far, we’ve trained and supported over 3000 people, mainly women, to start working on tea estates. Most of these people have directly experienced
gender-based violence, and the remainder are people from relatively low-income households who are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

Many of these trainees are already earning far above the average wage for people harvesting tea and are now able to take care of themselves and their families with their earnings.

Charlotte, one of the young trainees participating in this initiative, spoke about the impact of this work at the project launching ceremony in western Rwanda:

“I was selected to be supported by the Gender-Based Violence Survivors’ Economic Empowerment (GBV-SEE) project that Health Poverty Action is launching today. 

I would like to appreciate the local leaders both at the provincial and district level for working with Health Poverty Action [and their partners] to bring the GBV-SEE project [and create] employment in the tea estates because it will improve the livelihood of women, especially the victims of GBV who are living in the hardship."

Charlotte was especially keen to highlight the broader changes the project is helping to cultivate:

"People in their communities used to consider teen mothers and GBV survivors in general as people who are hopeless, without a destination, depending on others, and speechless. But our time has come to restore hope in ourselves, become independent, and make our voices heard.

On behalf of all project beneficiaries, I thank Health Poverty Action for bringing the mentioned innovative project to GBV survivors through [creating opportunities for] employment and [hosting] behaviour change sessions.  With much joy and pleasure, I have nothing to say, except to thank [you all] for considering GBV survivors.”

You can help survivors of gender-based violence create positive change in their communities by supporting our Cultivating Change appeal. Please give whatever you can today.

In solidarity,

Siaffa Bunduka,
Supporter Engagement Manager

P.S. Whatever you can give will help more communities worldwide come together to develop better opportunities for all.