For the past 4 years Unloc has been working in partnership with Rwanda-based social enterprise Acts of Gratitude (AoG). AoG has a mission to train and support 100 new social entrepreneurs in Rwanda over the next 10 years.
In 2019, the partnership received grant funding from the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust to help make AoG’s mission a reality. As a result of that funding, over 100 social entrepreneurs are being trained in cohorts of 30 at a time. Unloc has helped write and develop the curriculum being delivered and is now working to help AoG become sustainable into the future whilst also learning a great deal from our Rwandan colleagues (and now friends).
As part of Unloc’s ongoing partnership with AoG, two of our team (Ben Dowling and David Hart) recently visited Rwanda for a packed 6 days and they wanted to share how it went:
Day 1/2: Travel & Orientation
Ben and David travelled for 18 hours flying from London Gatwick Airport to Kigali Airport via Istanbul. Having arrived at 2am local time, the team got some needed sleep before visiting the AoG headquarters for the first time. The team were greeted with great enthusiasm and positivity which helped set the tone for the week ahead.
Day 3: Ingenzi
‘Ingenzi’ translates to ‘important’ or ‘valuable’, this is the title of the social entrepreneurship course being delivered thanks to the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust. A great name for such a course! The course runs from 9am (with offer of breakfast beforehand) through to 3pm (including lunch) every Friday for 12 weeks. This week was all about managing finances in a social enterprise start-up and the Unloc team enjoyed taking part in the session and getting to know the social entrepreneurs on the course.
Day 4: Akagera
Akagera National Park is Central Africa’s largest protected wetland and the last remaining refuge for savannah-adapted species in Rwanda. David and Ben were very lucky to visit the Akagera to see some of the splendours that Rwanda has to offer. The local guides were so knowledgeable and charismatic, David professes they “should be the next David Attenborough.”
Day 5: Genocide Memorial
In just 100 days in 1994, approx. 1 million people were killed in the Rwandan Genocide. Ben and David visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial to better understand the context of what happened and how it continues to effect everyday society in Rwanda.
Day 6: Safeguarding, Strategic Planning & Alumni
Given the international context of Unloc’s partnership with AoG, it is even more critical for there to be robust policies and procedures around safeguarding to keep everyone safe. Ben and David spent the morning working with the AoG team on what they have in place and provided some ’Safeguarding Essentials’ training. In the afternoon, the team worked to put a strategic plan together for how AoG can achieve their goal of training 1000 social entrepreneurs. Finally, in the evening, Ben and David were able to meet some alumni who have already graduated from the Ingenzi course to hear about how it helped them and what they’re doing now.
Day 7: Facilitation Skills, Code of Conduct & Farewell
With their combined decades of facilitation experience, Ben and David worked with AoG staff to boost their facilitation skills to ensure AoG are providing the best possible service to their participants. Further, AoG has a strong set of defining values; grateful, passionate, resourceful, ethical, collaborative, and results-driven. These values have formed the backbone of AoG’s new Staff Code of Conduct which outlines how staff uphold these values through their behaviours and actions. To finish their time in Rwanda, Ben and David were part of a ‘Farewell Dinner’ which brought together the AoG wider family including staff, course participants, mentors and alumni to celebrate everything that has been achieved as part of the Unloc/AoG partnership.
Day 8: Travel Home
David and Ben left Rwanda in the early hours for their long trip home and used the time to reflect on how impressive the AoG’s work is and how much they had learnt from being in such a different environment for the week.
It was a very positive 8 days and solidifies a strong international partnership that is working to create great change.
To find out more about Acts of Gratitude, please see http://www.actsofgratitude.
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