Indego Africa

Indego Africa, founded in 2006, improves the lives of Rwandan women by providing skills training and export markets for their fair-trade handicrafts. The women in the cooperatives are survivors. They support themselves and the children they are raising by selling their handicrafts to Indego Africa. The $50,000 in grants from the AllPeopleBeHappy foundation (2009-2013) was used for the Hand Up program by providing 1) business management skills training, 2) literacy training, 3) ESL training, and 4) workplace upgrade for the approximately 350 women in its 6 cooperatives. High-achieving students from Generation Rwanda, and US interns have been conducting the training program for the Cocoki textile co-op, the Covanya weaving co-op, the Twiyubake and Abasangiye co-ops in Kayonza, the Ingenzi Knit Union in Kigali, and the Ejo Hazaza bead-making co-op in Nyacyonya.  From 2014-2016, the Foundation awarded Indego Africa a 3-year $90,000 Challenge Grant to expand its program into Ghana.  In 2016, a $10,000 Project Grant was awarded for the new Vocational Training Program in Rwanda, where 90 young women were taught artisan skills and basic business education.  In 2017, a $10,000 Project Grant was awarded for the Vocational Training Program in Ghana to support the 1-year training of 15 seamstresses, who will form a new sewing cooperative at the end of 2018.  (www.indegoafrica.org)