After well over a year of research, planning, developing and securing funding for the Rwandan Producer Support Project, here I am in Kigali seeing it in action.

I have been to Rwanda four times now and never cease to be amazed by the kindness of Rwandans, the cleanliness of the country and the warmth of the people I am fortunate enough to work with.

I arrived super early this morning as I was told that the traffic jams in Kigali would be horrendous and it would take well over 50 minutes to get to the training venue; in reality it took all of 10. That’s 40 minutes of valuable sleep I could have caught up on after my journey from the UK!

But when the trainers arrived, all thoughts of rest disappeared. They have clearly gone through a journey themselves, forming a close bond between each other and the Traidcraft staff that we have consulted to run this part of the project. I was greeted like an old friend and told me with great pride about the progress they have made. This includes a training manual, which they will put into action next week with 30 handicraft makers from across Rwanda.

I have to pinch myself to check that this is real, that this Shared Interest Foundation project is no longer just something written on sheets of paper, but it is having a real impact on people’s lives.

I have to go now as the training is about to begin again, but will write again soon as I cannot wait to share the stories of the trainers, handicraft organisations as well of those of our very own project coordinator, Donatien, with you all very soon.

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