January 2021 Report

Project update

Sustainable agriculture project for 82 families in Nyabisindu Village

In December, we kicked off a sustainable agriculture project in Rwanda, in collaboration with Dufantanye organisation. In this project, we provided 82 families in Nyabisindu village with expert training in agricultural practice, animal husbandry, finance and saving. Once training concluded each family was given ten banana trees, two fruit trees, two laying hens, vegetable seeds, and fertiliser - to provide a sustainable method for them to combat malnutrition and diseases associated with hunger.

On Thursday 21st January, Godfrey (project lead) messaged with updates after making his way to Nyabisindu village to see how this project's beneficiaries are progressing.

The good news is the women are seeing some real progress in growing their fruit trees, especially the banana trees. The not so good news is that some of laying hens were lost to eagles. Nonetheless, the beneficiaries are very grateful for our support in empowering them to grow and sell their food.

"Thinking about us and supporting us during this difficult period is a blessing we will never forget. We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year."

I've attached some images taken in the village.

Images

News update

Three disguise internships started this January.

Last year we partnered with award-winning global visual technology company disguise, to offer paid internships to Black professionals seeking industry experience.

This January three successful candidates begin their internships with disguise:

Charlene Ashu who will be working with their Software Engineering and Support teams, Kane Sargent who will be working with their Support and QA teams, and Ephie Oyedoh who will be working with their Software Engineering and QA teams.

I don’t think I can entirely describe how happy I was to receive my internship offer. Coming from a Law background, I was uncertain of how I would make my breakthrough into this industry, but I feel like I have been fast-tracked and I am grateful to Kwanda for this. Ultimately, I want to learn from this internship: develop my technical skills, learn how to navigate corporate tech environments, and make the most out of being trained and working for a remarkably cool and successful company. - Charlene Ashu

Unfortunately, another successful candidate did not take the offer as he quite rightly wanted to hold on to his stable job at this current time.

Interns

News update

We're partnering with PayPal!

We had some big news in January: We secured a long-term strategic partnership with PayPal, along with a $50,000 award.

PayPal is a great partner to have as we aim to resume our investments into UK based projects and communities this year.

I'll reveal more on how we plan to re-invest this grant into communities in the coming months.

Updates

🥳🎉 We’re excited to announce our partnership with @PayPal - who will be joining us on our mission to empower Black communities and SMB’s.

💸 Kicking off with a $50,000 award to Kwanda, which we’ll be investing directly into empowering individuals, communities and businesses. pic.twitter.com/nXedpzJoMP

— Kwanda (@JoinKwanda) January 15, 2021

Closing notes

It's been a slow start by our standards, but we've got some very impactful projects and changes coming up in February.

The team is hard at work in rolling out these changes, and I have the personal challenge of making sure you're all 100% informed and clear on the things we're doing. Despite the constant praise of our transparency, this year I want to push the envelope even further.

February 18th will make one year in existence for Kwanda. I'm looking forward to making it a special month.

I hope you enjoyed this January report.

The more villagers we have, the more reliable our structure becomes for black communities. If you haven't already, I ask you to join us or spread the word!

Until next time.

Stay safe.