Transitioning to e-services: The Story of Marie Claire Mukamusoni
Story of a club member in Rwanda’s Gisagara District
This article is part of a series of posts featuring individuals across Rwanda who are learning digital skills as we develop a digitally literate country. Read more about the work Mozilla and Digital Opportunity Trust are doing in Rwanda here
Marie Claire Mukamusoni is a courageous woman from the southern province of Rwanda who strives to continuously improve the livelihood of her family and her community. By day, Mukamusoni is a nursery teacher and at night she is working hard to support her family. Despite her busy schedule, Mukamusoni manages to find time to attend regular club meetings so she can learn about technology and how to use it.
She decided to join a Mozilla club when she learnt from a meeting that there were upcoming capacity building opportunities that would teach her to use her phone to get information online. She had also heard stories about people who succeeded and supported their business by using information available online.
Mukamusoni has been in a local learning club for four months and she enjoys every bit of it. In a typical club day in her region, participants are learning about technology and the use of e-services like how to purchase electricity, pay taxes, request official documents using mobile phones. They also have been working on a business plan to start a project of producing combustibles from household wastes to address the lack of charcoal and wood challenge that is faced by their community. The project requires advanced skills and being in a club allows them to put ideas together and do research online to be able to make it successful. Club members also deposit a weekly contributions to support the project and make sure to have enough capital when the project is ready to kickoff. The many activities in the club have made it a cornerstone for the community, who is able to learn and create together
Attending club meetings has equipped Mukamusoni with technical skills and improved her teamwork skills. She has also learnt how she can achieve sustainable development by using her new skills to improve her finances and use her time efficiently. Participating in the club is also an opportunity for socializing and networking which is especially important to Mukamusoni because she has often felt isolated from the broader community because of her busy schedule. Now she gets to connect with others, discuss issues that matter in their region and have fun catching up with friends.
Mukamusoni is applying the gained skills to make her daily life much easier. While she used to carry out her banking transactions using traditional time consuming methods, she is now able to do her savings using technology and relies on herself to run electronic transactions.
“Before the club, I used to spend 3 days in the dark because it took me 2 hours to go to the agent selling electricity bundles and sometimes I would return without and had to go back. When I needed an official document I would spend days at the sector office waiting to be served but now I am able to use e-services on my own to pay electricity and water bills, pay monthly subscriptions and use different services accessible from Irembo platform.” She says.
Mukamusoni is very happy and grateful for the opportunity to be a citizen club member and recommends her colleagues to join clubs and benefit from the inexhaustible opportunities that flow from being part of such amazing clubs.
