Rwanda

Teenage Entrepreneur Bucks Trend Toward Domestic Work in Rwanda to Stay in School

A 16-year-old girl has become a national role model by staying in school in her village and contributing to her family with a local job.

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Teenage Entrepreneur Bucks Trend Toward Domestic Work in Rwanda to Stay in School

Anne Girimpuhwe, 16, helps support her mother, Melana Nyiraminani, while serving as a role model for her younger sister, Sarah Niyogushima, to stay in school.

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NYARUNYINYA, RWANDA – Anne Girimpuhwe, 16, is on holiday from school. But she is not resting in her village, Nyarunyinya, in southern Rwanda.

Instead, she wakes up at 7 a.m., picks up her small hammer, and walks to the field where her family grows cassava, potatoes and beans. For eight hours a day, she gathers stones from the field and breaks them into pieces.

Small and slight, Girimpuhwe stands out next to the men and women who typically perform such work. Whereas other girls her age have dropped out of school to become domestic workers in Kigali, the nation’s capital, to support their families, Girimpuhwe has found a way to earn and learn.

After Girimpuhwe breaks the stones, she places them in plastic jerry cans, filling each 30-liter can halfway. In a typical day, she says she can produce up to 10 cans, which she sells to customers who come to buy stones for construction projects. She sells each can for 50 Rwandan francs (8 cents).

When school is in session, Girimpuhwe earns about 1,500 Rwandan francs ($2.35) each weekend, she says. But during long school holidays, which last for two months, she can earn up to 5,000 francs ($7.80).

Her earnings cover her personal expenses, such as clothing, body lotion and pens for school. Lotion alone costs 500 francs (75 cents), she says, and she cannot expect her parents to pay for these items.

“My family is poor,” Girimpuhwe says. “Their responsibility is to feed us and pay medical insurance. I’m the eldest, so I can’t ask them to buy clothes and lotion for me. I work for it in cutting these stones.”  

Like many families in Girimpuhwe’s village, her parents are poor farmers. And like many girls her age, she says she works to help her family.

But she has chosen a different approach from other girls in her village. Several of her friends have dropped out of school to seek domestic work in Kigali, located 88 kilometers (55 miles) away.

But Girimpuhwe refused to abandon her studies. Instead, she saw men and women cutting stones in the fields and realized the trade’s potential to solve her dilemma.

“I have realized that instead of going to Kigali to be a house girl,” she says, “although my parents are poor, I would continue my studies and support them with my work of cutting stones in our fields.”

Steven Mugande, Girimpuhwe’s father, says that he was skeptical when she began her initiative. He was afraid she would drop out of school to pursue her business.

“I was afraid that if she gets some money, she could forget about school businesses,” he says. “But I have realized that it’s not the case, for she solves some of her problems.”

Girimpuhwe’s earnings help support the entire family, he says. She has contributed money toward transportation and gas for the lamps in their home.

Most importantly, finishing school will enable her to pursue greater career opportunities, Mugande says.

“I am happy with her,” he says, “because if she finishes school, she may get a better job than cutting stones.”

Francoise Uwimana, Girimpuhwe’s classmate, says her friend’s commitment to her studies makes her unique.

“Girimpuhwe is a friend of mine, and she performs well at school,” Uwimana says. “And the fact that she decided to cut stones showed me that she is different from other girls who decide to go do housekeeping at Kigali.”

Uwimana says she wants to follow the trail Girimpuhwe has blazed.

“When I realized that she cuts stones and performs well at school at the same time, I wished she could be my role model,” Uwimana says. “That’s what gave me a desire to stay close to her for me to learn a lot from her.”

News of the entrepreneurial teenager has spread even outside her small village.

Fidele Nsengiyumva, a student at Kigali Independent University, has never met Girimpuhwe. He learned about her initiative in February on a radio program.

Her story was so unique that it gave him goose bumps, he says. He admires the way she performs her job without fear that people will make fun of her for cutting stone instead of becoming a domestic helper. Girimpuhwe is a role model for other girls, he says.

Girimpuhwe says she hopes that she can inspire young people to help their parents. But she especially wants to inspire her younger sister, Sarah Niyogushima, to stay in school.

As she progresses in her own studies, she says her dream is to become a police officer. As adult stone cutters in the field have shoved her out of the way to claim customers, she aspires to become a police officer to protect the rights of victims of violence.

 

 

Interviews were translated from Kinyarwanda.