SAP Social Sabbatical Kigali, Rwanda Week 4
“I’m hearing only bad news from Radio Africa” — is the main line of a Latin Quarter song from 1985. Spotify — Radio Africa — song and lyrics by Latin Quarter
If you follow European news portals coverage of Africa in general, but also of Rwanda in particular, you might get the impression that not much has changed since then. Whether you search German tagesschau.de (Suchergebnisse für ‘Ruanda’ | tagesschau.de) or British BBC (BBC — Search results for Rwanda) the majority of articles is still related to genocide, asylum schemes, conflicts. No surprise, that many Europeans have a very one-sided picture of Rwanda. When I was telling my family, friends, and colleagues that I will be traveling to Rwanda, often the first reaction was concern about safety.
But is this reflecting the reality, are there no good news at all? After spending four weeks in Rwanda, I can clearly say: despite all issues and development needs: Rwanda is an exciting country, with vibrant, green, clean and safe cities, beautiful nature, and most notably amazing people. There are also many more reasons to be optimistic for the future development.
During our SAP Social Sabbatical in Kigali, we had the privilege to meet passionate social entrepreneurs from four organizations. We could learn about their success stories and help them to solve business challenges. My SAP colleagues worked with:
Resonate (resonateworkshops.org), an organization which offers leadership workshops that allow women and girls to shift their mindsets, turn skills into action, and fulfill their potential.
Starlight — Shine With Us (starlightafrica.com) focuses on engaging kids into STEM education and therefore enables them for the future needs of the job market
FABLAB|Rwanda which provides space and facilities for innovators and makers in technology specifically in electronics.
And there is of course Kosmotive. Maryam Mohammadian, Rutika Bodas and me had the pleasure to work there for four exciting weeks. Kosmotive provides reusable sanitary pads to girls and young women in rural areas, who otherwise could not afford hygienic products and would risk missing school frequently.
All of these organizations have something in common: they are managed by passionate Rwandans who use their entrepreneurial spirit to focus on the enablement of Rwanda’s young generation and therefore also make an impact for the future of the country. With this spirit Rwanda´s governments ambitious vision to become a high-income country by 2050 (see Vision 2050 (Rwanda) — Wikipedia) does not seem to be unrealistic.
Thanks a lot #SAP and #Pyxera for making a fabulous and truly unique experience happen.
Thanks so much to the whole SAP group, for being such a great team.
Special thanks to Maryam and Rutika for being the best teammates ever.
Above all, thanks to Blandine, Opportune and the other Kosmotive colleagues for the warm welcome, the excellent cooperation and their friendship.
By the way, “Radio Africa” is a song about Africa. Do you know music from Africa? You might want to check out the following song from Rwanda:
Spotify — Bigtime — song and lyrics by Yvan Buravan
Or these, which are not from Rwanda, but very popular there:
Spotify — Rush — song and lyrics by Ayra Starr
Below some impressions from our last week in Rwanda.
