A story of change
Chantal Nyiramahire, a 42-year-old Congolese refugee and mother of four children, has completed primary education and lives in the Kiziba refugee camp.
In 2012, she received tailoring training but struggled to succeed due to a lack of business knowledge and her family’s poverty, consuming only one meal daily.
After being selected as a Caritas Rwanda’s beneficiary through the Poverty Alleviation Coalition (PAC) project in 2021, she was provided with different sessions of training including Financial Literacy, Entrepreneurship, income-generating activities, and an empowered world view among others which shaped her mind in terms of running profitable businesses. that capacity building was accompanied with a cash grant of 80,000RwF (around USD800) to run her business of cloth manufacturing.
After receiving that cash grant in March 2023, she began manufacturing and selling African loincloths and sewing for customers. With PAC Project training, she expanded to the US, targeting fellow refugees who went there for resettlement. “My business permits me to earn around Frw 115,000 monthly net profit, in addition to the sewing fees, and that allows me to take care of my family. As of now, we can’t run out of vegetables at home and we eat twice a day”. She declared.
She also claims to save Frw 10,000 in her savings group every week and to have Frw 4,200,000 in her bank account. Her working capital today is around 2.6 million Rwandan francs.
“First and foremost, I appreciate the training I received, which is particularly beneficial to me. “Even now, I share my knowledge with my friends and teach them how to save and develop,” Chantal says, smiling.
To watch Chantal’s testimonial click here