Starting a business is not always easy and when you are a young mother some might argue that you face a lot of challenges. Not for this young mother! She lives in the Gahanga Sector of Kicukiro district in Kigali City.
She heard about the CBH Women Economic Program through a community announcement and she immediately wanted to get in on the project. She wanted to further her passion of doing business by joining a community of like-minded young women who were on the same journey through training. Similar to many others, she joined a women group (cohort 2) at CBH office at Gahanga Cricket Stadium and began going through Economic Empowerment training including financial literacy, setting life goals and making plans to achieve them, opportunity mapping, qualities and characteristics of a good entrepreneur, sources of business ideas, testing my business ideas, is my business idea really a business opportunity? and Voluntary Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs).
Claudine has expressed that because of her involvement in the program, she has been able to transform into a business woman who is knowledgeable about the power of saving, planning, time management and other skills that she still learns through intensive coaching and mentorship done by Faraja Rwanda during saving meetings and site visits!
In terms of the success of her business, Claudine makes a profit of 2,000 RWF/day. Her family lives in Gahanga which makes it easy for her to go from her house to work near the isoko “local market”. During an interview, Claudine was asked whether she faced any challenges as a young mother, she said “she’s facing a challenge of capital to expand her business.” But Claudine is determined to become self-employed and improve her business as she has a plan of opening Irembo business shop to serve her community. She wakes up every day with the goal to expand and improve her business.
This is the story of Claudine, a young Rwandan woman who turned her life around by following her passion for doing business. Yes, she is a young mother, but she has overcome that obstacle and is living a life with a goal and is a promising young entrepreneur.