
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 $30,000 in grants from the AllPeopleBeHappy foundation is being used to expand the Hands Up program by providing 1) business management skills training, 2) literacy training, 3) ESL training, and 4) workplace upgrade for the approximately 300 women in its 5 cooperatives. Fourteen talented high-achieving students from Orphans of Rwanda International, and one US intern 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, and the Ingenzi Knit Union in Kigali. (www.indegoafrica.org)